History of the Confederate Powder Works

by George Washington Rains

It was soon perceived that to increase the supply, a special refinery for saltpetre would have to be erected; works accordingly were projected, commenced, and mainly completed, at Nashville, by the 9th October, on which day 1,500 lbs. were refined, and this amount was gradually increased to 3,000 lbs. daily. Experts were not to be found, and for some days every part of the operations were carried on under my personal instruction.

Gunpowder contains three-fourths of its weight of saltpetre, and to have its proper and enduring strength, this constituent must be refined to almost chemical purity. Thus the obtaining of this material and its preparation, became matters of the highest consideration.

The Governor of Georgia, at the suggestion of Lieutenant Boggs, late of the Ordnance Department of the old army, had purchased a small cargo of saltpetre and sulphur in Philadelphia, which fortunately arrived safely at Savannah just before that port was blockaded. This store of material, although comparatively small, was of extraordinary value, as from it mainly the gunpowder for General A. S. Johnson’s army was supplied, as well as the Batteries at Fort Pillow, Island Number 10, and Memphis, on the Mississippi river.

The earth of the limestone caves of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and other States, was rich in nitrate of lime, and this salt was convertible into saltpetre by lixiviation and saturating with the lye of wood ashes. Some of these caves were personally visited, and great efforts made to have them worked to full capacity. Agents were sent out to investigate their capabilities with authority to make contracts, and supply the necessary information for their working; the last was accomplished by means of a pamphlet which I published in Nashville giving detailed instructions, and which was distributed throughout the country; it was republished in Richmond, New Orleans and other places. As rapidly as the crude saltpetre was [p6] received from the caves it was refined and sent to the powder mills, and the products mostly sent to General A. S. Johnson’s command. About 100,000 pounds of gunpowder were thus supplied before the fall of Nashville, besides a considerable amount sent to New Orleans and other places.

The caves of Arkansas were rich in nitrous earth, and those of Texas still more so, and these supplied the armies west of the Mississippi river with material for gunpowder. As early as practicable I sent out instructed powder-makers to both those States, who under the directions of the military authorities, assisted to put up the necessary powder mills for the Trans-Mississippi department, which after the fall of Nashville was left necessarily to its own resources.

In the early part of November my time had become so much occupied that it was no longer practicable to attend to the production of saltpetre, and Mr. F. H. Smith was sent from Richmond by the Chief of Ordnance to relieve me from its duties. At a later day a separate department was established, called the Nitre and Mining Bureau, which then had the entire charge of its production.

In the latter part of November, by the desire of General Lovell—the able officer in command at New Orleans—I proceeded to that city and examined the temporary arrangements for making gunpowder, and also conferred with him relative to procuring a supply of saltpetre from abroad. He suggested the chartering of the steamship Tennessee, then lying idle in the river near the city, to proceed at once to Liverpool and take in a cargo of saltpetre and return to New Orleans, or, in case of necessity, to put in at Charleston or Wilmington. The suggestion met my views, and was approved by Mr. Benjamin, then Secretary of War, but was not carried out on account of the effective blockade of the mouth of the Mississippi.

The Confederate Government, however, by its agents in Europe, purchased saltpetre which was shipped on swift blockade runners which arrived from time to time at Charleston and Wilmington. This proved to be adequate to our wants, and about two millions, seven hundred thousand pounds were thus received during the war and sent to the Confederate Powder Works. The amount obtained from the caves amounted to about three hundred thousand pounds for the same period. Thus the total amount received at the works amounted to about 1,500 tons.

The Governor and Military Committee of Tennessee, in making [p7] the contracts for war material, had engaged Mr. Whiteman, of Nashville, an energetic citizen, to construct a Powder Mill at Manchester, who at my suggestion adopted the incorporating process of heavy rollers on an iron circular bed, such as I had proposed to employ at the Confederate Powder Works erected at Augusta. The construction of this mill was urged on so successfully, that by the middle of October one set of rollers was in operation, and a second set in course of erection; a month later, by supplying saltpetre and charcoal from the refinery at Nashville, 1,500 pounds of gunpowder were daily produced.

I had proposed at an early period to make this Powder Mill a school of instruction for a few selected men, so as to have them ready for service at the Augusta Powder Works when they should commence operations—similarly to what had been done at the Refinery at Nashville, where men were being taught to refine saltpetre and distill charcoal. Before the occupation of Nashville by the Federal forces, these men, together with the machinery and articles of the Refinery in that city, were removed to the Augusta Works; thus they were supplied at the commencement with the necessary means of operation, which could not have been otherwise accomplished. But one man—Wright—could be found in the Southern States who had seen gunpowder made by the incorporating mill—the only kind that can make it of the first quality; he had been a workman at the Waltham Abbey Government Gunpowder Works, in England. He was made available in the operation of the Manchester Mill, and afterwards for a short time at the Augusta Confederate Works, and although sadly defective in a certain way, I was much indebted to his knowledge and experience.