Powder Production

Powder Production. "It has been said the Confederacy never lost a battle for lack of powder.". Ingredients: , The three essential ingredients to produce black powder are charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur. When ignited, these 3 ingredients react together to form large volumes of expanding gases. This provides the propelling force to projectiles in fire arms and artillery., Raw saltpeter (niter) is produced from the limestone cave mining industry and contains impurities that absorb moisture and weaken the gunpowder. Both saltpeter and sulfur must be refined to make reliable gunpowder. Saltpeter was available from nearby Saltpeter Cave, and in larger amounts Bone Cave in Van Buren County. On April 1, 1862, the Confederate congress passed a bill creating a Niter Bureau. Isaac Munroe St. John, a civil engineer turned soldier, was selected to head the Confederate Niter and Mining Corps., Process: , 1. Mixing - The ingredients of gunpowder were combined in a proportion of approximately 75% saltpeter, 15% charcoal, and 10%-sulfur. The mixture was moistened and kept wet throughout all but the last step of manufacture. This significantly reduced the risk of combustion. , 2. Incorporation - The mixture was sent to incorporating mills, where it was ground under huge mill rollers to create finished mill cake. , 3. Cooling - This warm, damp mill cake was cooled and hardened in a cooling magazine. , 4. Granulating - The mill cake was broken into fragments by bronze toothed cylinders and vibrating wire screens. This separated and sorted the grains by size. The larger grains were used for artillery pieces, and the smaller grains were processed for shoulder arms and pistols. , 5. Drying - The gunpowder was at its most combustible during this stage of the process. After it was dried, the finished, high quality gunpowder was weighed and packed for shipping via railroad to points all over the Confederacy., "We may expect of no distant day that the active and methodical operations of the Niter Corps will supply our demand and make us in-dependent of foreign Importation." , -CSA Secretary of War George Randolph, "The Governor and Military Committee of Tennessee, in making contracts for war material, had engaged Mr. Whiteman, of Nashville, an energetic citizen, to construct a Powder Mill at Manchester... The construction of this mill was urged on so successfully that by the middle of October [1861] one set of rollers was in operation, and a second set in course of erection; a month later, by supplying saltpeter and charcoal from the refinery at Nashville, 1500 pounds of gunpowder were produced daily...I had proposed at an early period to make this Powder Mill a school of instruction for a few select men." , Col. George W. Rains, History of the Confederate Powder Works Augusta, Gas Chronicle and Constitutionalist Print, 1882), 7-8.