Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War

Abstract

The Confederate Congress established the Confederate War Department in order to provide administration for the conduct of war. Initially, there were four departments, the Inspector General, Quartermaster Department, Subsistence Department and the Medical Department. Later, the Ordnance Bureau would be created to specifically to deal with arming confederate forces. The Ordnance Bureau forged an unheralded chapter in U. S. Civil War history. Charged with' gathering resources and manufacturing arms and munitions for the Confederacy. the Ordnance Department was placed" in the charge of a legendary chief, Josiah Gorgas, who led the agency until the closing days of the war. This work " focuses on the Ordnance Department's operations throughout the South, from harvesting valuable mineral resources to the manufacturing of finished arms and ammunition with a look into the distribution process outlined to get the arms and ammunition to the troops. The Ordnance Department used aggressive and innovative methods to achieve partial success, but was doomed to failure by labor and transportation problems.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 25, 2011
Accession Number
ADA600828

Entities

People

  • Adrian T. Marinez

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Ammunition
  • Artillery Ammunition
  • Civil War
  • Congress
  • Contracts
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Marine Corps
  • Munitions
  • New York
  • Small Arms
  • Transportation
  • United States
  • Universities
  • War
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Industrial Economics
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Munitions and Ordnance Engineering