Scientists of the Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau

Ralph W. Donnelly is already well-known to our readers, who enjoyed his "Confederate Copper" in a previous issue. He is the treasurer of the American Müitary Institute and a member of the editorial board of "Müitary Affairs." Currently he is associated with the Southland Life Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. Scientists of the Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau RALPH W. DONNELLY among the notable AcmEVEMENTS of the Confederate States Army which have received little public recognition is the work of the Ordnance Bureau and its directly related branches. This faüure to receive public recognition has not been due to any lack of military importance but probably to the shifting of emphasis in history away from military history, the relative absence of "glamor" when compared with combat history, a previous faüure on the part of the history-reading public to appreciate the importance of supply in warfare, and the general disparaging of the achievements of any noncombat military man. The general historian has been prone to devote his usually Umited space to the strategy and tactics of combat units to the virtual exclusion of the services of supply. The increasing emphasis upon social and economic history and the attenuation of military history by the general historian has left Uttle incentive to the special historian and the monographist to delve into the organization and operations of the services of supply. No less an authority on American military history than the late Dr. Douglas S. Freeman has advocated a comprehensive study of the Confederate services of supply. Modern warfare with its concept of totality has made the re-evaluation of our military history compulsory. The Confederacy seems to have recognized the fundamental fact that neither defensive nor offensive combat is possible without arms and ammunition . It was, as it turned out, fortunate in securing the services of Josiah Gorgas as chief of ordnance. Gorgas, in turn, developed an ordnance organization capable of meeting the needs of the day, selecting capable men with gratifying success. As the work of the Bureau of 69 70RALPHW. DONNELLY Ordnance multiplied, Gorgas voluntarüy subdivided the functions of the Bureau and appointed responsible chiefs. In an unbureaucratic manner foreign to this day and age, he promoted the subdivision of his own bureau by the separation of the work of securing domestic supplies of raw materials for munitions from the Ordnance Bureau and the transfer of these functions to a new organization known as the Nitre Bureau (later the Nitre and Mining Bureau). In a simüar manner he promoted and helped secure the creation of the Bureau of Foreign Supplies. At the head of this Nitre and Mining Bureau Gorgas placed Isaac M. St. John, a highly competent engineer, whose services and organizational ability were recognized before the close of the war by his appointment as Commissary General in place of the inept Northrup. The original function of the new bureau was to procure a supply of nitre (basic to the manufacture of gunpowder) from caves and artificial beds. Its field of activity was later enlarged to embrace the mining of iron, copper, lead, and coal.1 The personnel to work in and with the Nitre Bureau was carefully chosen. "With two or three unimportant exceptions, appointments in the Nitre Corps as officers or agents were not solicited but were tendered; in several cases, upon an appeal from the superintendent, higher rank and more desirable service have been given up."2 The original plans called for the detaüed or appointed officers to possess special qualifications ; the agents to be active business men of good standing, the laborers to be able-bodied men.3 It is with the professional educators and trained scientists who were caUed to work with this Nitre and Mining Bureau that this article is concerned. As the work of the Nitre and Mining Bureau became more complicated with its increased responsibilities, the need for special scientific assistance for the duration became more and more apparent. It was not necessary that this scientific assistance come from individuals who would qualify physically and by age for regular army service. The prime requisite was scientific knowledge that was directly applicable to the...