The Second-Largest Gunpowder Factory In The World Was Located In The Confederacy

Confederate Ordnance Bureau officials built a government-run gunpowder mill along the industrial canal at Augusta, Georgia, as there was little likelihood of importing enough gunpowder from abroad and few gunpowder producers in the South. In September 1861, work started. The facility was completely operating seven months later. Throughout the whole war, it provided the Confederacy with premium powder. The Confederate Powderworks, sometimes known as the Augusta Powderworks, was a gunpowder plant built by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. As a safe inland position with adequate rail and water connections, Colonel George Washington Rains selected the old United States Arsenal site in Augusta, Georgia, which is located between the Canal and Savannah River.

Building construction started in September 1861, and after Richard Peters' Atlanta flour mill sold him a 130 horsepower steam engine, the Powderworks was manufacturing gunpowder by the end of 1862. In addition to finding a former employee to offer advice, Rains was guided by a pamphlet produced by a British artillery officer outlining the powder works at Waltham Abbey in Essex County close to London. The Confederate Powderworks, which produced 3.5 tons of gunpowder per day from 1862 to 1865, was the second-largest gunpowder plant in the world at the time. Before it was shut down on April 18, 1865, it generated more than 2.75 million pounds of high-quality gunpowder—the majority of the powder utilized by the Confederacy.