Augusta is a city of 20,000 inhabitants; but its streets
being extremely wide, and its houses low, it covers a vast space. No place that
I have seen in the Southern States shows so little traces of the war, and it
formed a delightful contrast to the war-worn, poverty-stricken, dried-up towns
I had lately visited. I went to the Episcopal church, and might almost have
fancied myself in England: the ceremonies were exactly the same, and the church
was full of well-dressed people.
At 2 P.M. I dined at the house of Mr Carmichael, son-in-law
to Bishop Elliott, who told me there were 2000 volunteers in Augusta, regularly
drilled and prepared to resist raids. These men were exempted from the
conscription, either on account of their age, nationality, or other cause — or
had purchased substitutes. At 3 P.M. Mr Carmichael sent me in his buggy to call
on Colonel Rains, the superintendent of the Government works here. My principal
object in stopping at Augusta was to visit the powder manufactory and arsenal;
but, to my disappointment, I discovered that the present wants of the State did
not render it necessary to keep these establishments open on Sundays.
I had a long and most interesting conversation with Colonel
Rains, who is a very clever, highly-educated, and agreeable officer. He was
brought up at West Point, and after a short service in the United States army,
he became Professor of Chemistry at the Military College. He was afterwards
much engaged in the manufacture of machinery in the Northern States. At the
commencement of this war, with his usual perspicacity, President Davis selected
Colonel Rains as the most competent person to build and to work the Government
factories at Augusta, giving him carte blanche to act as he thought
best; and the result has proved the wisdom of the President's choice. Colonel Rains
told me that at the beginning of the troubles, scarcely a grain of gunpowder
was manufactured in the whole of the Southern States. The Augusta powder-mills
and arsenal were then commenced, and no less than 7000 lb. of powder
are now made every day in the powder manufactory. The cost to the
Government of making the powder is only four cents a pound. The saltpetre
(nine-tenths of which runs the blockade from England) cost formerly
seventy-five cents, but has latterly been more expensive. In the construction
of the powder-mills, Colonel Rains told me he had been much indebted to a
pamphlet by Major Bradley of Waltham Abbey.
At the cannon foundry, one Napoleon 12-pounder is turned out
every two days; but it is hoped very soon that one of these guns may be
finished daily. The guns are made of a metal recently invented by the
Austrians, and recommended to the Confederate Government by Mr Mason. They are
tested by a charge of ten pounds of powder, and by loading them to the muzzle
with bolts. Two hundred excellent mechanics are exempted from the conscription,
to be employed at the mills. The wonderful speed with which these works have
been constructed, their great success, and their immense national value, are
convincing proofs of the determined energy of the Southern character, now that
it has been roused; and also of the zeal and skill of Colonel Rains. He told me
that Augusta had been selected as a site for these works on account of its
remoteness from the probable seats of war, of its central position, and of its
great facilities of transport; for this city can boast of a navigable river and
a canal, besides being situated on a central railroad. Colonel Rains said, that
although the Southerners had certainly been hard up for gunpowder at the early
part of the war, they were still harder up for percussion caps. An immense
number (I forget how many) of these are now made daily in the Government
factory at Atlanta.
I left Augusta at 7 P.M. by train for Charleston. My car was
much crowded with Yankee prisoners.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 176-8
