If it should be reenforced, the
Confederate Government might be strangled by the fall of Charleston, and
the landing of an army even before a blow could be struck.
Captain Raphael Semmes was sent North to buy every gun in the market. He
was directed to secure machinery, and skilled workingmen to man it, for
the establishment of arsenals and shops, and above all to buy any vessel
afloat suitable for offensive or defensive work. Not a single ship of
any description could be had, and the intervention of the authorities
finally prevented the delivery of a single piece of machinery or the
arms he had purchased.
Major Huse was sent to Europe on the third day after the inauguration at
Montgomery on a similar mission.
General G. W. Rains was appointed to establish a manufactory for
ammunition. His work was an achievement of genius. He created artificial
niter beds, from which sufficient saltpeter was obtained, and within a
year was furnishing the finest powder.
General Gorgas was appointed Chief of Ordnance. There was but one iron
mill in the South which could cast a cannon, and that was the little
Tredegar works at Richmond, Virginia. The State of Virginia had voted
against secession and it would require the first act of war against her
Southern sisters to bring her to their defense.
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