GDG- Re: Gettysburg Digest, Vol 41, Issue 45

[jack]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Ryan" <pennmardel at mchsi.com>
To: "GDG" <gettysburg at arthes.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 9:26 PM
Subject: RE: GDG- Re: Gettysburg Digest, Vol 41, Issue 45


> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> <<I know that powder in the North was manufactured by established,
> industrial
> sized plants.  DuPont was the major manufacturer, though there were 
> others.
> DuPont was a major innovator in the field so the others in the north would
> have had their standard to meet. The Northern manufacturers would have 
> been
> pretty uniform, though I am no expert.
>
> In the South there were two major powder works established to produce
> gunpowder, I think in Tennesee and Virginia. I imagine that is because 
> here
> were a lot of caves and saltpeter was readil available. I would suspect 
> that
> the quality was not as good in the south, or uneven at best.>>
>
> The primary powder works in the South was established in April 1862 along
> the Augusta Canal in Georgia.  Col. George Washington Rains set up a
> remarkable operation that produced almost three million pounds of 
> gunpowder
> over a three-year period.  The buildings stretched over a two-mile area
> along the canal.  Unfortunately the buildings did not survive except for 
> the
> shot tower which still stands.  However, the replacement buildings housing 
> a
> cotton mill were designed to resemble the powder works.  So if you visit
> there, you can get a sense of what the operation looked like.
>
> Rains chose Augusta for its central location but still remote from the 
> main
> area of conflict, its canal that provided transportation and water power,
> and its railroads.  The quality of the powder was rated highly.  There 
> were
> some explosions at the mills, but not as many as Dupont experienced during
> the war at its mills along the Brandywine River north of Wilmington,
> Delaware.  Explosions were usually caused by carelessness on the part of 
> the
> workers.
>
> Col. Rains achievement was rather exceptional considering the limited
> resources he had to work with.
>
> Regards, Tom

Tom,

DuPont was making over half the nations powder at the outset of the war. In 
the early 19th century it had pioneered powder making in North America, 
introducing seminal changes in manufacturing and distribution, as well as 
formula. It broke the Indian (continent) stranglehold on salpeter production 
as it located large deposits in the US. It was a major supplier of powder in 
the world market, even providing powder to belligerents during the Crimean 
war.Yes, there were explosions, 11 during the war, but they were spread out 
over 30 Mills. The losses came from experimentation with new products and, 
during the ACV, increasd production and inexperienced help.

Augusta itself suffered an explosion of over 6,000 lbs at one point anyway.

The Brandywine (yes, that Brandywine) plant was procucing 2700 pounds a day 
of powder at the height of the war at 33 cents a pound, while the largest 
plant in the South was producing 500 pounds a day at ten times the cost. 
That was the output of only a single mill, one of 30. And DuPont was only 
half the production in the North.

Since DuPont by that time had established the benchmark for powder 
production worldwide in manufacturing, formulary and distribution, it is 
highly that the Augusta works were anything but imitations.

And there is a lot of debate as to which made the superior powder. 
Ceratinaly, anything the South put together probaby have surpassed the 
DuPont machine.

Yes, Col. Rains did yeoman's work, but is was just another case of the South 
just not having the expertise or the assets. The problem with the Augusta 
story is that it is in Virginia and, by default, becomes the grandest, 
greatest, best at everything. It gets all the attention. It was a pretty 
pale imitation of it's powerful cousins to the North.

What Raines did have was ideas, and he ceratinly specialized in mines, 
torpedoes, grenades, land mines etc. To the point that the Union officers 
said it was unfair and wrong. Losers weepers.

Also, some people claim that theThe Sycamore Powder Mills Plant in Nashville 
produced the largest amount of gunpowder for the Confederate Army. No 
production figures available. Since it was captured in 1862, it is hard to 
tell.  It fell to after Donelson. It was a hundred years old by then and, by 
description, massive. Dunnooo.   It was a major production plant, by 
pre-Civil War standards, though it's lifetime was short after the war 
started.

It was taken over by DuPont after the war and produced powder until the end 
of WWI.

Regards,

Jack