Project Gutenberg's History of the Confederate Powder Works, by Geo. W. Rains

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: History of the Confederate Powder Works

Author: Geo. W. Rains

Release Date: February 7, 2008 [EBook #24537]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONFEDERATE POWDER WORKS ***

Produced by David Wilson and The Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

HISTORY OF THE
CONFEDERATE POWDER WORKS

By
COL. (GENERAL) GEO. W. RAINS.

Late of the Confederate Army.

An Address Delivered by Invitation
Before the Confederate Survivors'
Association, at its Fourth Annual
Meeting, on Memorial Day, April 26th,
1882.

THE NEWBURGH DAILY NEWS PRINT, NEWBURGH, N. Y.

ADDRESS.

_Fellow Confederate Survivors:_

In accepting your invitation to address you on the general history of
the Confederate Powder Works, I do so with some hesitation, on account
of my close personal connection with a subject which absorbed my
thought, time and energies.

In the history of a war we find, generally, but little reference to the
manufactories engaged in the preparation of material; they had been
previously established, and were in active operation before its
commencement, their products being immediately available for active
operations. An instance can scarcely be found in modern warfare where
previous preparations had not been made, and where the necessary
manufacturing works did not already exist.

The late war was entered upon unexpectedly. Throughout the Southern
country it was supposed that the North would not seriously oppose a
secession of the States from the Federal compact, hence no previous
provision had been made for such contingency, and no material of war
gathered.

Manufactories existed on a very limited scale, and none for war
purposes, hence their speedy erection was of extreme importance, and had
to be accomplished under the most unfavorable conditions.

The entire supply of gunpowder in the Confederacy at the beginning of
the conflict, was scarcely sufficient for one