Continuing on my theme of the Civil War fantasy rosters that I discussed earlier [1], and choosing the second pick to my roster after George Thomas [2], I would like to comment a little bit about the purpose of this roster of names as a whole.  When one is conducting a fantasy draft, especially with the roster of civil war generals that exists, one has to make some shrewd guesses as to the behavior of one’s fellow drafters (namely those interested in the American Civil War, a large group of people).  It is therefore the intention of this set of names to showcase some of the unjustly obscure but worthy Civil War figures that would be neglected by the “casual” Civil War fan who is busy picking not only worthy and famous generals like Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, but also pretty weak leaders like Beauregard, Johnston, Bragg, McClellan, Pickett, and Hood, because they are well known, or overrated figures like Joshua Chamberlain because they were skilled politicians able to steal laurels from the dead.  It is therefore the intent of my “picks” to show those lesser known but still decisive figures in the Civil War.

With that introduction in mind I would like to announce my second round draft pick, Josiah Gorgas.  Though there are few Confederates I consider obscure enough to mention, or morally acceptable enough to draft (sorry, no Nathan Bedford Forrest here), Josiah Gorgas allows me to pay tribute to a remarkable Confederate general (who was Northern-born, from Pennsylvania) and also to a neglected area of Civil War history–the vital importance of logistics to military affairs [3] [4].  It is said that while amateurs study tactics in military affairs, that professionals study logistics.  The efforts of Josiah Gorgas to the Confederate military effort are unjustly obscure because his challenge was almost impossible, his efforts heroic and successful, and yet he has been largely forgotten.

Who was Josiah Gorgas [5]?  He was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on July 1, 1818.  He graduated in 1841 from West Point and was assigned to the Ordinance Department, a fairly boring posting as quartermaster awaiting him (interestingly enough, Ulysses S. Grant also served as a Quartermaster and performed bravely enough in that job to gather fame for his bravery and skills in horsemanship during the Mexican-American War).  Nonetheless, Gorgas’ service in Mexico was not particularly flamboyant and after the war he worked at various arsenals.  He was promoted to Captain in 1855, which meant he must have been noted as a particularly active soldier (the Ordinance Department provided few opportunities for glory).

Perhaps decisively for his decision in the Civil War, he married Amelia Gayle, the daughter of a former Alabama governor, suggesting both that Gorgas moved in some pretty high social circles and also that he was politically inclined to the elitism and parochialism of the South.  During the prewar period he became familiar with the limited industrial capability of the South, and became familiar with the small group of Southern military manufacturers, like the management of Richmond’s Tredegar Iron Works.  When the Deep South (including Alabama) rebelled, he resigned from the United States army and became Chief of Ordinance for the Confederate Army.

Gorgas’ work was difficult in the extreme.  The Union blockage, made more effective by a foolish decision of the South to attempt to use the embargo of its own shipping of cotton as a misguided exercise in diplomacy, also prevented a great deal of supplies, such as guns and ammunition, from entering the Confederacy.  Additionally, the Confederacy was woefully unprepared to fight an industrial war given its own economic and social structure.  With all of these extreme limitations, though, Gorgas managed through cleverness, hard work, and energy to overcome these nearly impossible difficulties and keep the Confederacy’s armies well armed throughout the war.

He did this by establishing armories, finding alternative sources of saltpeter (a necessary component of gunpowder), establishing gunpowder works in neglected parts of the Confederacy (like Augusta, Georgia).  Through these heroic acts of labor, Gorgas was successful throughout the war in keeping Confederate soldiers armed despite the South’s creaky railroad system, disinclination to industry and manufacturing, and maladjusted external development, as well as the loss of much Confederate territory as the war went on and the inability to trade on a large scale with more developed European nations.  Whatever one thinks of the Confederate cause (and I think it an exceedingly poor one), his brave efforts are still worthy of far more recognition than they have received.

When the Confederacy received its just desserts in 1865, Gorgas sought to continue his work in manufacturing in Alabama (in a plant which had served Selma’s ordinance plant, the target of a destructive and successful 1865 raid by Union Major General James H. Wilson, defended unsuccessfully by one Nathan Bedford Forrest in the waning days of the Civil War).  Due to the expenses of labor and supplies, the investment was not as profitable as it would have been.  Gorgas did have a successful postwar career in academia, becoming president of the University of the South in  Sewanee, Tennessee in 1870 and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1878.  He died in 1883.

He did one more favor for the United States–he fathered a son, William Crawford Gorgas, who became the Surgeon-General of the United States army and developed anti-malaria measures that allowed the United States to successfully build the Panama Canal and take its place as a world power, an act which increased American strength greatly, and simultaneously led to the decline of Chile as a Pacific naval power.

Therefore, for his heroic contributions to a largely unappreciative rebel host, Josiah Gorgas deserves a great deal of credit.  Quartermasters and soldiers in supply billets do not receive the glory for shipping the lifeblood of armies to soldiers, despite the fact that logistics are decisive in many conflicts.  The fact that Gorgas was a fairly combative and critical person who does not seem to have been all that easy to work with, and someone who got into a fair amount of feuds with commanding officers and civilian leadership in the prewar US Army, may have negatively influenced his reputation as well [6].  That said, his competence in extremely difficult matters, and his ingenuity in arming soldiers that had no business standing up to a rising industrial power like the Union, deserves credit at least for making the contest of the American Civil War a fair fight rather than a massacre.  For that, we salute Josiah Gorgas, obscure Ordinance director.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/civil-war-fantasy-leagues/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/civil-war-fantasy-roster-george-thomas/

[3] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/the-difference-between-shipping-and-logistics/

[4] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/book-review-the-four-books-of-martial-policy-english-translation-of-the-de-re-militari/

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Gorgas

[6] http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1100