Trivia #16 Bronze (9/16/2014)

Status
Not open for further replies.
"After the Federals had captured the copper mines of Tennessee, the scarcity of copper caused the South to suspend the casting of bronze fieldpieces and to hoard the existing copper for use in the manufacture of percussion caps."
From: http://www.knowsouthernhistory.net/Biographies/Josiah_Gorgas/

"The second essential resource in East Tennessee was the copper region at Ducktown. Copper mines there produced ninety percent of the Confederate copper"
From: http://www.cincinnaticwrt.org/data/ccwrt_history/talks_text/miller_east_tennessee.html

So my answer is: The capture of the copper mines in the Ducktown (copper) district, EastTennessee ended the Confederacy's ability to produce bronze cannons
 


In 1857 only five mines were operating regularly -- the Tennessee, Mary’s, Isabella, Eureka, and Hiwassee. In 1858 the mines in the Basin began to consolidate into three large companies -- the Union Consolidated Mining Company, the Burra Burra Copper Company, and the Ducktown Copper Company.
The Civil War disrupted work at the mines, as the miners left to fight in the war and the mines closed down. Many mine interests and smelting plants were owned by northern industrialists who closed the mines in late 1861. The confederacy gained control of the Basin in 1863 and sold the mines to southern capitalists to provide the south with needed copper. The mines were operated at a reduced capacity through the end of 1863 when Federal troops again gained control of the area.


http://www.telliquah.com/History2.htm

This man had a part in the copper supplies of the South, Josiah Gorgas.
http://www.knowsouthernhistory.net/Biographies/Josiah_Gorgas/
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top