The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1863-04-23
Chapter Ab0ut the Powder Mill.
i'll the COnfedcraIe S:aies,


A letter in the London Times Of the 18th
ult. dated Augusta, GA. January 26th.
thus speaks of the powder mills establish
ed at various points by the Southern gov
erument. 1t is Interesting:
When upon the 18th Of April, 1861, !,
Fort Sumter surrendered to General Beau
regard and the Conftde rates, not one sim
gle pound of gunpowdcr was anywhere
manufactured in the Confederacy: A rig
orous blockade of the seaports of the
South was Immediately commenced through
which the principle ingredient of gunpow-
der (saltpeter) had to be largely sucked
in.
AT this juncture it seemed advisable to
President Davis to intrust to Colonel
Rains, formerly an officer Of The United
States army, the responsibility of planning
and building a-large government mill for
The manufacture OF gunpowder. For this
post Col mel Raines possessed eminent
/
chemistry az West Point, and for some
years. since leaving the army, he had been
at TIL head of some large irou works at
Newburg, on the Hudson.
Augusta, in Georgia was selected as the
site Of the intended mill, and never both
AS regards the person and the stu alton
pitched upon, was happier sagacity evinced
by the President. Following, so far as he
was acquainted with it, the plan upon
which The guupowder mil at Waltham
A bbey. belonging to the English govern
ment, is built, Colonel Rains proceeded to
construct the works necessary for his pur-
pose; and the success which has attended
his efforts has been such as could never
have been believed before the pressure Of
war aud privation Lad awakened Southern
ingenuity and enterprise. The result is
that, at Ibe cost OF about f20,OO0. one Of
the most perfect gunpowder mills in the
world has been produced, which turns out
5000 pounds of powder per day. and could
produce double the quantity. if worked un
der The exigency OF a pressing demand.
The cost of the powder, in spite of the
costlness of the sallpeter which has been
introduced through the blockade. is about
four cents a pound, which is about the
same as it cost in England. The mill has
now been constantly at work for many
months. and. cosequently. more powder
than the Confederacy is likely to require
for years to come has already been pro-
duced. There ID another government
powder mill at Columbia, in SJuth Carroll.
na, working. | believe, to supply the wants
mot very large as YETI of the Confederate
navy.
But all the guupo 1der issued for the
service of the Confederate armies of Vir-
ginia aud the West, and also for the de-
tense of Charleston and Vicksburg, has
come out of the mill at Augusta; and il
was stated to me by an ordinance officer
in Charleston that the powder which he
had recently received there and tested
was very nearly, if not entirely, up to the
standard Of the finest English manufsc-
ture
The extreme dclbera,ion with which
the Confederate government has engaged
in many large and costly undertakings re-
quir NJ long time for their completion and
much ingenuity in their design. is the best
earnest of the qIietnesS and confidence
with which they have from tho very COM
mencement looked at their independence
rs at a thing which they could not fail TO
attain.
These governmeu. powder mills at Colum
bia and Augusta are by no means the sols
achievements Of The C,nfederates at home
in support Of their soldiers in the field
II may b, noticed that in the North. al
though the necessity for the erection of a
government powder mill las often been
represented to the War department at
Washington, no such mill has ever been
erected.
1t has been found that private interests
have been too strongly represented in Con-
gress to admit of the withdrawal of the
government patronage from the great pri-
vate firms in Connecticut and Delaware
between which il is believe, divided. In
hundreds of matters that necessity, whic h
was thought by the North certain to crush
the Southern power of resistance, has but
developed ar energy for which the world.
and especially England, was very little
prepared.
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