NF Josiah Gorgas

Non-Fiction

Norm53

First Sergeant
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
Location
Cape May, NJ
Just ordered the book of his edited diaries by Sarah Wiggins. Frank VanDiver wrote another book on Gorgas: Ploughshares Into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance. Don't want to bother borrowing this 2nd book through the library (too expensive to buy) if it contains not much more than the diaries.

Has anyone read both books and can tell me whether the latter tells a lot more than the former?

Thanks in advance, Norm
 
I haven't read Wiggins book but have read the Ploughshares Into Swords years ago and it was a good book. You can read it for free at several place on the ole interweb,
 
Just ordered the book of his edited diaries by Sarah Wiggins. Frank VanDiver wrote another book on Gorgas: Ploughshares Into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance. Don't want to bother borrowing this 2nd book through the library (too expensive to buy) if it contains not much more than the diaries.

Has anyone read both books and can tell me whether the latter tells a lot more than the former?

Thanks in advance, Norm
VanDiver's book is very good. Gallagher has it in his top 100 CW books list. Its not a bank breaker at $13 used on Amazon.
 
@Norm53

Sir, this may interest you...and its FREE!

Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War
by Major Adrian T. Marinez~ USMC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Title
: Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War
Thesis: This paper discusses how an agriculturally based confederate South was able to mobilize an industrial base capable of providing enough arms and munitions to wage war against the North. More specifically, the Confederacy's beliefs in States Rights and views on personal property rights created a lack of a usable transportation infrastructure and labor considerably hampered the war effort. These issues and not the lack of an industrial capability, knowledge or wherewithal rendered the Confederacy unable to harness raw materials and move them, as well as finished products, throughout the Confederate lines of communication.
Discussion: The outcome of the American Civil War is a repeatedly, and sometimes emotionally, discussed subject that has captivated historians for generations. Some reasons given for the South's defeat include the fact that the Confederacy employed faulty strategy, being defensive instead of offensive and at times confusing when they should be either. Another one is the separation between the states rights and decisions needed to be made to wage total war by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and a somewhat makeshift and inexperienced government. Historians often question the Confederacy's commitment to a cause many of them were indifferent to, some arguing that the South no longer had the will to fight long prior to the inevitability of defeat. The Union possessed many of these same characteristics, and they would have surely been attributed to them had they lost the war. More frequently, arguments are made that the greater amount of resources and manufacturing capability and capacity in the North was the largest factor in the South's demise.
Conclusion: The Confederate Congress established the Confederate War Department in order to provide administration for the basic agencies required for the conduct of war, the supply bureaus. Initially, there were four departments, the Inspector General, Quartermaster Department, Subsistence Department and the Medical Department. Later, the Ordinance Bureau would be created to specifically to deal with arming confederate forces. The Ordnance Bureau forged an unheralded chapter in U. S Civil War history. Charged with gathering the resources and manufacturing the arms and munitions for the Confederacy, the Ordnance Department was placed in the charge of a legendary chief, Josiah Gorgas. As the mission increased, the Niter' and Mining Bureau became an independent agency under Isaac M. St. John, who led the agency until the closing days of the war. This thesis examines the Ordnance Department's ability to keep Confederate forces in enough arms and ammunition to continuously wage war. This work focuses on the Ordnance Department's operations throughout the South, from harvesting valuable mineral resources to the manufacturing of finished arms and ammunition with a look into the distribution process outlined to get the arms and ammunition to the troops. The Ordnance Department used aggressive and innovative methods to achieve partial success, but was doomed to failure by labor and transportation problems.

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a600828.pdf
85

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

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@Norm53

Sir, this may interest you...and its FREE!

Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War
by Major Adrian T. Marinez~ USMC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Title
: Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War
Thesis: This paper discusses how an agriculturally based confederate South was able to mobilize an industrial base capable of providing enough arms and munitions to wage war against the North. More specifically, the Confederacy's beliefs in States Rights and views on personal property rights created a lack of a usable transportation infrastructure and labor considerably hampered the war effort. These issues and not the lack of an industrial capability, knowledge or wherewithal rendered the Confederacy unable to harness raw materials and move them, as well as finished products, throughout the Confederate lines of communication.
Discussion: The outcome of the American Civil War is a repeatedly, and sometimes emotionally, discussed subject that has captivated historians for generations. Some reasons given for the South's defeat include the fact that the Confederacy employed faulty strategy, being defensive instead of offensive and at times confusing when they should be either. Another one is the separation between the states rights and decisions needed to be made to wage total war by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and a somewhat makeshift and inexperienced government. Historians often question the Confederacy's commitment to a cause many of them were indifferent to, some arguing that the South no longer had the will to fight long prior to the inevitability of defeat. The Union possessed many of these same characteristics, and they would have surely been attributed to them had they lost the war. More frequently, arguments are made that the greater amount of resources and manufacturing capability and capacity in the North was the largest factor in the South's demise.
Conclusion: The Confederate Congress established the Confederate War Department in order to provide administration for the basic agencies required for the conduct of war, the supply bureaus. Initially, there were four departments, the Inspector General, Quartermaster Department, Subsistence Department and the Medical Department. Later, the Ordinance Bureau would be created to specifically to deal with arming confederate forces. The Ordnance Bureau forged an unheralded chapter in U. S Civil War history. Charged with gathering the resources and manufacturing the arms and munitions for the Confederacy, the Ordnance Department was placed in the charge of a legendary chief, Josiah Gorgas. As the mission increased, the Niter' and Mining Bureau became an independent agency under Isaac M. St. John, who led the agency until the closing days of the war. This thesis examines the Ordnance Department's ability to keep Confederate forces in enough arms and ammunition to continuously wage war. This work focuses on the Ordnance Department's operations throughout the South, from harvesting valuable mineral resources to the manufacturing of finished arms and ammunition with a look into the distribution process outlined to get the arms and ammunition to the troops. The Ordnance Department used aggressive and innovative methods to achieve partial success, but was doomed to failure by labor and transportation problems.

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a600828.pdf
85

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
Very good. Need studies like this and military leadership studies to account for the war lasting 4 years, not 5 or 3.
 
@Norm53

Sir, this may interest you...and its FREE!

Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War
by Major Adrian T. Marinez~ USMC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Title
: Mobilizing the Confederate Industrial Base for Total War
Thesis: This paper discusses how an agriculturally based confederate South was able to mobilize an industrial base capable of providing enough arms and munitions to wage war against the North. More specifically, the Confederacy's beliefs in States Rights and views on personal property rights created a lack of a usable transportation infrastructure and labor considerably hampered the war effort. These issues and not the lack of an industrial capability, knowledge or wherewithal rendered the Confederacy unable to harness raw materials and move them, as well as finished products, throughout the Confederate lines of communication.
Discussion: The outcome of the American Civil War is a repeatedly, and sometimes emotionally, discussed subject that has captivated historians for generations. Some reasons given for the South's defeat include the fact that the Confederacy employed faulty strategy, being defensive instead of offensive and at times confusing when they should be either. Another one is the separation between the states rights and decisions needed to be made to wage total war by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and a somewhat makeshift and inexperienced government. Historians often question the Confederacy's commitment to a cause many of them were indifferent to, some arguing that the South no longer had the will to fight long prior to the inevitability of defeat. The Union possessed many of these same characteristics, and they would have surely been attributed to them had they lost the war. More frequently, arguments are made that the greater amount of resources and manufacturing capability and capacity in the North was the largest factor in the South's demise.
Conclusion: The Confederate Congress established the Confederate War Department in order to provide administration for the basic agencies required for the conduct of war, the supply bureaus. Initially, there were four departments, the Inspector General, Quartermaster Department, Subsistence Department and the Medical Department. Later, the Ordinance Bureau would be created to specifically to deal with arming confederate forces. The Ordnance Bureau forged an unheralded chapter in U. S Civil War history. Charged with gathering the resources and manufacturing the arms and munitions for the Confederacy, the Ordnance Department was placed in the charge of a legendary chief, Josiah Gorgas. As the mission increased, the Niter' and Mining Bureau became an independent agency under Isaac M. St. John, who led the agency until the closing days of the war. This thesis examines the Ordnance Department's ability to keep Confederate forces in enough arms and ammunition to continuously wage war. This work focuses on the Ordnance Department's operations throughout the South, from harvesting valuable mineral resources to the manufacturing of finished arms and ammunition with a look into the distribution process outlined to get the arms and ammunition to the troops. The Ordnance Department used aggressive and innovative methods to achieve partial success, but was doomed to failure by labor and transportation problems.

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a600828.pdf
85

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
Boy, talk about promising more than you deliver!! This is a very basic look at the Confederate Ordnance Department and in no way covers the entire Confederacy's mobilizing its raw resources for total war. Even in its field, it is full of errors and mis-statements -- use with care.
 
Boy, talk about promising more than you deliver!! This is a very basic look at the Confederate Ordnance Department and in no way covers the entire Confederacy's mobilizing its raw resources for total war. Even in its field, it is full of errors and mis-statements -- use with care.
Thanks for the heads up.
 
Boy, talk about promising more than you deliver!! This is a very basic look at the Confederate Ordnance Department and in no way covers the entire Confederacy's mobilizing its raw resources for total war. Even in its field, it is full of errors and mis-statements -- use with care.

Thank you sir, we'll put that one down as a bad apple.
107

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Just ordered the book of his edited diaries by Sarah Wiggins. Frank VanDiver wrote another book on Gorgas: Ploughshares Into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance. Don't want to bother borrowing this 2nd book through the library (too expensive to buy) if it contains not much more than the diaries.

Has anyone read both books and can tell me whether the latter tells a lot more than the former?

Thanks in advance, Norm
This turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment because he did not write about his work, which is what I wanted to understand. He wrote about what he learned from others about the war in general. However, having bought the book, I finished it, and now have another memoir in my memory.
 
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