May 29, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
It will be recollected how great, in the beginning of the war, was the anxiety which filled the breast of every patriot in relation to the scarcity of powder in the Confederate States. Every grain was husbanded; each sportsman and farmer brought in his little store, and poured it upon the heap to keep up the supply. Percussion caps were scarcely to be obtained at all. And at the first battle of Manassas, many of the soldiers had not one cap to each cartridge in their cartridge boxes. The terrible rout at that period was a God-send in this particular, thousands of cartridges were collected and saved, and thus we made in one glorious day, preparation for a whole campaign.
But during the interim every effort possible had been made by president Davis and the then Secretary of War, Hon. Leroy P. Walker, to establish a mill for the manufacture of powder on an extensive scale. The matter was entrusted to the superintendence of Col. Kaines, formerly an officer of note in the army of the old Federal Government, and at one time Professor of Chemistry at West Point.
The ingredient most difficult to procure was saltpetre; but every inducement was offered to the people throughout the South to bring out this precious substance from the caves and banks where it had long lain hidden from want of an exigency calling for its production. The call was promptly answered, and a superabundance of saltpetre was soon produced, and brought to hand. By that time we were ready to commence the manufacture of gunpowder, which was done forthwith. The result of the whole matter is, that at the cost of about $100,000 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 that amount if worked day and night, and much more if worked under the exigency of a pressing demand.
The Southern powder is necessarily good, from the fact that the usual adulterating ingredient, plumbago or black lead, is very difficult to procure. The ingredients necessary to the manufacture of gunpowder are saltpetre or nitre, charcoal and sulphur, all in determinate proportions, and intimately mixed. After being thoroughly dried they are separately ground into a fine powder, which is passed through seives or bolting machines. They are then mixed together in the proper determinate proportions, and the composition sent to the gunpowder mill, which consists of two-edge stones of a calcareous nature, turning by means of a shaft on a bed-stone of the same nature, which gives no sparks, as sand-stones are apt to do. On the bed-stones the composition is spread, and moistened sufficiently to make it cake upon the revolving stones.
Without going into detail, it is only necessary to our purpose to state that the cakes are dried, put into a corning mill to be broken up; then pressed through seives to regulate the size of the grains. The powder is then enclosed in a reel or cask, turning rapidly on its axis, and the grains polish themselves by attrition, provided they are allowed to remain sufficiently long in the cylinder.
It has been the practice in many factories, where cheap powder is made, to put among the powder a quantity of black lead or plumbago which gives a beautiful polish in a few moments without resorting to attrition. But plumbago is a slow conductor of heat, and hence when a charge of powder, the grains of which are coated with that substance, is fired from a gun, at least one-third of the powder is never burned. In firing with powder not coated, every grain is burned. If a pistol, loaded with plumbago coated gun powder, is fired close to a person’s face, the grains will enter the face and remain under the skin, unless picked out, one by one. But such is not the case with unadulterated powder, and unless the flash shall burn the face, no further damage can be done.
The tests of the quality of powder are varied. If the grains, when closely examined, are found to possess sharp edges, it may be safely assumed that there is no adulteration, as the grains have sharpened and polished themselves by attrition. Such is the case with Hazard & Dupont’s diamond grained powder, which became so celebrated among sportsmen. And such is the quality of much of the powder manufactured in the Confederate mills, as a gentleman, formerly connected with the establishment of the above named firm, superintends one of the Southern mills. If the grains of the powder are almost round, with no sharp edges, and is, at the same time, highly polished, it is adulterated and coated, either with varnish or black lead. If the best quality of powder is rubbed in the hand it leaves no stain, while the adulterated article leaves the palm of the hand black. Hazard & Dupont’s fine powder, when exploded on white paper, left only a substance like a cobweb, which could be lifted from the paper, the surface remaining perfectly white.
The latter class of powder is that now manufactured in the South. It does not foul the piece from which it is fired. At the battle of Roanoke Island the powder used by the men was of an inferior quality, and consequently the men were unable to drive down the ball after firing twenty-five or thirty rounds; but now, with the present fine quality of powder, there is no foul deposit on the inside of the barrel of the piece, save the slight cobweb substance, which is always driven out by each succeeding charge, and the rifled musket, equal to the best in the world, now manufactured at the Richmond Confederate Armory, can be fired, with the Confederate powder, three hundred times before it will become foul.
We have now no fear of a scarcity of powder, for should our mills perchance be destroyed, there is enough of the article already made and distributed to last the Confederacy for several years to come. All the ingredients are at hand to make it, and what, with a most glorious cause, the finest of arms, the best of powder, the bravery of our men, the prayers of our fair ones, and the smiles of Heaven, our final triumph must not and cannot be otherwise than complete. Richmond Enquirer.