Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Born in Running Pumps, Pennsylvania, he was a poor boy who sought to improve himself by securing an appointment to West Point, he graduated 6th in the class of 1841 and spent most of his years as a junior officer studying and working in ordnance depots and arsenals. His marriage to an Alabama woman, together with his Southern friendships and resentment against abolitionist extremism, induced him to go south in April 1861 and offer his services to the Confederacy. He accepted a position as chief of the Ordnance Bureau and the enormous task of arming Confederate armies, directing the collection and distribution of weapons and ammunition available in the South. At the same time he dispatched agents to Europe to purchase arms and began establishing mills and factories throughout the South to manufacture the tools of war at home. His success was extraordinary. He displayed sound judgment and organizational genius in selecting his subordinates and managing what became a huge war industry. Very soon, however, the Confederacy began losing control of its manufacturing establishment because of military capture, and he spent his final year of the war attempting to patch up his organization and maintain as much efficiency as possible. At war's end he was a Brigadier General, but he and his adopted nation had lost all. After a brief attempt at business, he became an educator, first at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, then as president of the University of Alabama. He died at his home in Tuscaloosa.
Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Born in Running Pumps, Pennsylvania, he was a poor boy who sought to improve himself by securing an appointment to West Point, he graduated 6th in the class of 1841 and spent most of his years as a junior officer studying and working in ordnance depots and arsenals. His marriage to an Alabama woman, together with his Southern friendships and resentment against abolitionist extremism, induced him to go south in April 1861 and offer his services to the Confederacy. He accepted a position as chief of the Ordnance Bureau and the enormous task of arming Confederate armies, directing the collection and distribution of weapons and ammunition available in the South. At the same time he dispatched agents to Europe to purchase arms and began establishing mills and factories throughout the South to manufacture the tools of war at home. His success was extraordinary. He displayed sound judgment and organizational genius in selecting his subordinates and managing what became a huge war industry. Very soon, however, the Confederacy began losing control of its manufacturing establishment because of military capture, and he spent his final year of the war attempting to patch up his organization and maintain as much efficiency as possible. At war's end he was a Brigadier General, but he and his adopted nation had lost all. After a brief attempt at business, he became an educator, first at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, then as president of the University of Alabama. He died at his home in Tuscaloosa.
Bio by: Ugaalltheway
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