Arming the Confederacy How Virginia’s Minerals Forged the Rebel War Machine /

• Main Author: Whisonant, Robert C. (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2015.
• Subjects: Popular works.; Culture > Study and teaching.; History.; Historical geology.; Mineral resources.; Earth.; Geology.; Popular Science.; Popular Earth Science.; Mineral Resources.; Historical Geology.; History, general.; Regional and Cultural Studies.

This is a fresh look at the American Civil War from the standpoint of the natural resources necessary to keep the armies in the field. This story of the links between minerals, topography, and the war in western Virginia now comes to light in a way that enhances our understanding of America’s greate...

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Minerals and Warfare
• Terrain and a Tale of Two Nations
• The Land They Fought For
• Niter and Gunpowder
• Bullets, Firearms, and Colonel Chiswell’s Mines
• The Lead Mines Under Attack
• The Saltville Salt Works
• Two Battles and a Massacre
• Iron, Civilizations, and War
• Virginia’s Iron Industry in the Civil War
• Coal, Confederate Mines, and the CSS Virginia
• Confederate Railroads
• Union Raiders in the New River Valley
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index.