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 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
knowledg