Replies

Oh please. What little industry the south had prior to the war contracted rather than expanded. The south was incapable of replacing railroad rails or rolling stock, its iron industry couldn't supply its needs, it was totally dependent on imports or capture for small arms, artillery, and almost every other military need. The south didn't have an industrial base in 1861 because it didn't want one and it felt it didn't need one.

Your bias is showing.

Artillery, Arms & Ammunition: Tredegar Iron Works

The Tredegar Iron Works, located in Richmond, was in 1860 a first-class operation employing 1000 slaves and skilled workers and was producing cannon and gun carriages for the U.S. government, as well as locomotives, rails for railroads, wheels and undercarriages for railroad cars, iron bar, boilers, cables, and naval hardware.

Oh print the rest of the quote, Pea. The article goes on to say,

"But after the start of the Civil War, Tredegar became the major arsenal for the South, specializing in heavy coastal cannon, 12-pounder Napoleons, and three-inch ordnance guns. The company made almost half the cannon produced domestically, along with artillery projectiles, naval mines, experimental submersible vessels, armor plating for ironclads, and heavy equipment for other arsenals and powder mills."

Nothing about manufacturing rails or locomotives during the war. I imagine that they had more pressing needs in cannon and the like. Other articles give the production of cannon at Tredegar as 1000 during the entire war. So I think that my statements in Reply 137 are still accurate. The southern manufacturing did contract during the course of the war. The south was incapable of replacing rails, rolling stock, certainly not as fast as the North tore them up. And the south was unable to provide the majority of its armaments.