Interesting Gunpowder Facts

[Southron Sr.]

The Hazard Powder Company of Hazardville, Connecticut was in business from the mid-1830's to the time the entire plant blew up in January of 1913.

The Hazard Powder Company supplied approximately 40% of all the powder used by the Union Army 1861-65. Most of it was used to make small arms ammunition because DuPont powder (DuPont supplied another 40% of the gunpowder used by the Union) was earmarked for the Union artillery.

The owner of the Hazard Powder Company, a Colonel Hazard, was A COLONEL IN THE GEORGIA MILITIA! He had lived in Savannah, GA many years before the outbreak of the Civil War and was very pro-Southern. He had been commissioned in the Georgia Militia and was very proud of the rank. He even kept the title after he moved back home to Connecticut to run the powder works.

In early 1861 Colonel Hazard sold 80,000 pounds of Hazard Cannon Powder to the State of South Carolina which used much of it for the bombardment of Fort Sumter!

The finest gunpowder made during the war was made at the Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, GA. The plant extended for two miles along the Augusta Canal and was copied from the British Government's plant at Waltham Abbey in England.

One of the reasons that the Augusta gunpowder was so superior was that the charcoal that was used in it came from branches of Black Willow trees that grew along the banks of the Savannah River.

After the war, captured lots of Augusta powder was tested at Fortress Monroe by Ordnance Department officers and found to be a superior powder.

In August of 1945, the USAAF B-29 "Enola Gay" dropped the world's first nuclear weapon, an Atom Bomb, of the Japanese City of Hiroshima, Japan. The trigger mechanism of that Atomic Bomb used Black Powder!

Modern GOEX powder used charcoal made from maple trees, at least until the plant moved from Pennsylvania.

GOEX is the only company in the United States that still produces black powder. The vast majority of the black powder made by GOEX goes to the military-not Skirmishers and other civilian black powder shooters.

GOEX was purchased by the Hodgdon Powder Company in 2009. Hodgdon also produces the "substitute black powder" Pyrodex at another plant.

[Maillemaker]

80,000 pounds to South Carolina...I could shoot for a long time with 80,000 pounds of powder. :)

[Maillemaker]

Today I learned Augusta College (Now Augusta State) was the Augusta Arsenal! I grew up in Augusta.

The river looks far away from the college now. I wonder if the river was diverted?

[Southron Sr.]

Dear Maillemaker:

The Confederate Powder Works were built along side of the AUGUSTA CANAL. The canal is still there. What is left of the Powder Works is a lone chimney. This was left as a monument to the Confederacy when the rest of the works were torn down to make way for the building of cotton mills shortly after the war. The chimney has recently been restored and dedicated at the cost of $100,000.00 Plus by the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and other civic groups in Augusta.

When the State of Georgia seized the Augusta Arsenal in 1861 it was literally "filled to the rafters" with arms, mostly .69 Caliber Model 1842 smoothbores along with a quantity of Mississippi Rifles.

I have spent a lot of time in the Georgia Archives in Morrow, GA going thru the original records regarding how the seized arms were issued out to Georgia troops at the beginning of the war:

A "Captain" (usually a local community leader, businessman, plantation owner, etc.,) would raise a company of volunteers. Now, to be official, the Captain had to be elected to that rank by the members of his volunteer company. When the company was accepted by the state, the Captain would take out a bond in the amount equal to the value of the muskets, bayonets and "leather gear," i.e., cartridge boxes, cap boxes, belts, and bayonet scabbards to be issued to his company. Usually the arms would be shipped via railway express to the station nearest the town from which the volunteer company was raised. The Captain would take possession of the arms and the company would be issued their arms and leather gear.

Also, a large quantity of powder was found in the Augusta Arsenal when it was seized. The powder was sent down to the State Penitentiary in MIlledgeville, GA and inmates sewed up powder bags for the artillery and loaded the bags with the cannon powder sent from Augusta! They also made small arms cartridges from the rifle and musket powder seized.

Later, Georgia Armory Rifles were made at the Penitentiary along with knapsacks, cartridge and cap boxes, shoes and amazingly-a railroad spur line was constructed that ran INTO THE PENITENTIARY! Prison inmates constructed rolling stock for the state owned Western & Atlantic Railroad. This included box cars, flat cars and even passenger cars!

[Maillemaker]

Cool stuff!

Steve

[DAVE FRANCE]

Very Interesting!

I never know what I am going to learn on this BB, and I am very interested in history. I like to learn something about history new to me, that is important. And many times, as far as I know, most people don't know.

Just one example: There were 8 battleships at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. After the attack some were repaired and modernized in California. Some battleships were transferred to the Pacific from the Atlantic. And two new, greatly improved battleships were sent to Hawaii, all by early March 1942. So, by early March the pacific battleship fleet was more powerful than the fleet that was attacked by the Japanese. But only two battleships were in Hawaii, and the other six were in California. The night fighting against the Japanese around Guadalcanal was done with destroyers and cruisers for months. Because the US didn't have enought oil tankers to supply battleships in the Pacific and supply the needs in the Atlantic at the same time.

Fortuantely the Japanese had a similar problem, so they mostly used destroyers and cruisers to fight in the Guadalcanal battles.

Neptunes Inferno by James D. Hornfischer (no kidding about the name)

Sorry for getting off the subject!

David

[DAVE FRANCE]

Southron,

My father was at Tinian and watched when the Enola Gay took off. He said the plane and the group were treated so specially that everyone knew something special going on. And said the two B-29s that took off before the Enola Gay both crashed upon takeoff. They were not in the same group as the Enola Gay.

He flew in B-29s during the Korean War from Okinawa.

Dave

[johncranack]

The Hazard Powder Company of Hazardville, Connecticut was in business from the mid-1830's to the time the entire plant blew up in January of 1913.

The Hazard Powder Company supplied approximately 40% of all the powder used by the Union Army 1861-65. Most of it was used to make small arms ammunition because DuPont powder (DuPont supplied another 40% of the gunpowder used by the Union) was earmarked for the Union artillery.

The owner of the Hazard Powder Company, a Colonel Hazard, was A COLONEL IN THE GEORGIA MILITIA! He had lived in Savannah, GA many years before the outbreak of the Civil War and was very pro-Southern. He had been commissioned in the Georgia Militia and was very proud of the rank. He even kept the title after he moved back home to Connecticut to run the powder works.

In early 1861 Colonel Hazard sold 80,000 pounds of Hazard Cannon Powder to the State of South Carolina which used much of it for the bombardment of Fort Sumter!

The finest gunpowder made during the war was made at the Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, GA. The plant extended for two miles along the Augusta Canal and was copied from the British Government's plant at Waltham Abbey in England.

One of the reasons that the Augusta gunpowder was so superior was that the charcoal that was used in it came from branches of Black Willow trees that grew along the banks of the Savannah River.

After the war, captured lots of Augusta powder was tested at Fortress Monroe by Ordnance Department officers and found to be a superior powder.

In August of 1945, the USAAF B-29 "Enola Gay" dropped the world's first nuclear weapon, an Atom Bomb, of the Japanese City of Hiroshima, Japan. The trigger mechanism of that Atomic Bomb used Black Powder!

Modern GOEX powder used charcoal made from maple trees, at least until the plant moved from Pennsylvania.

GOEX is the only company in the United States that still produces black powder. The vast majority of the black powder made by GOEX goes to the military-not Skirmishers and other civilian black powder shooters.

GOEX was purchased by the Hodgdon Powder Company in 2009. Hodgdon also produces the "substitute black powder" Pyrodex at another plant.

Excellent information! Really these details are truly valuable and informative. Its very useful for all the shooters. Hodgdon is one of my favorite, i mostly use alliant powder. Thanks for sharing the facts about gun powder and keep sharing more.

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[DAVE FRANCE]

Since we are swapping historical information, I would like to add a fact that many may not be aware of and most probably wouldn't care anyway.

This is from memory so details may be inaccurate. After the War of Southern Independence, the US negotiated a settlement with Britain and got a $6,000,000 payment for helping the confederacy. I think they were afraid the US would take it.

I think every black powder plant that operated in the US blew up at least one time.

David

[jbarber]

In response to Dave's surmise that all U.S. gunpowder plants have blown up at one time or another, there is one which I believe escaped destruction. The King's Mill powder plant, located along the west bank of the Little Miami River is, I believe, still standing, though moldering in decay. At least it was still there about ten years ago as I drove down rte.68 from Springfield to Xenia, Ohio. It consisted of several low-lying red-brick structures very close to the river. According to several of my Civil War references King's was a supplier to the Union, though small potatoes compared to Hazard and duPont,
Fifty years ago I bought black powder from Harold Woods, an old-time gunsmith in London, Ohio. As a young man he worked at King's Mill. He stated that the First World War saved the company from insolvency, but that it failed shortly thereafter. He recalled that the manager would not hire anyone who smoked - Harold was a chewer, still chewing in his 80's when I knew him - nor could you wear shoes with nailed soles. All the shovels and tools were made of copper and the building's roofs were deliberately made lightweight and flimsy.
As a side note, the King family moved to Warren County, Ohio after the plant shut down, speculating in land and making a financial killing; also becoming prominent in civic and political affairs. The King's Island Amusement Park is named for the family. History surrounds us. (and sometimes takes us on a thrill ride!)

[Mike Rouch 07791]

Jon, you are correct. As of two years ago the King's Mill buildings were still there between Xenia & Yellow Springs. I'll have to drive by sometime & check it out.


Mike
110th OVI

[Timmeu]

The buildings are still there at the south end of Goes Station. I have been told that the place did blow up once but with little problems with the buildings.

[jbarber]

Thanks for the input, Mike and Marty. Yeah, Goes Station was (is) the name of the wide spot in the road near King's Mill. I couldn't think of the name of it last night. Dave France may well be right about powder mill blow-ups. Old Harold Woods never mentioned an explosion, but it could have occurred before his time there. He began work in 1914 after the Hazard catastrophe netted King's a fat government contract. Like Mike Rouch, I'll drive over to the site someday. This time I'll take a camera. Can't be too many industrial sites left with a direct connection to the Civil War.
Jon Barber 1483-V, 110th OVI

[Southron Sr.]

Unfortunately, Black Powder Mills aren't the only powder mills to blow up. Did you know that a Pyrodex plant blew up?

Back in the mid-1970's I attended the NRA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was very fortunate to meet and talk for a short while with Bill Jordan. At the time he was retired from the Border Patrol. He was one of the fastest and best pistol shots this country has ever produced and he was a very nice man.

I also met and talked extensively with Dan Pawlak (?) He was a very bright young man in his 30's and really was, at that time, something of the embodiment of "The American Dream." He had came up with an idea, and working part time in his basement at home had developed the formula for Pyrodex.

He patented the formula and, when I talked with him, had found investors and was producing and selling the first batches of Pyrodex. At that time, Pyrodex was made in Washington state in a building that was leased from the government that formerly had been used manufacture solid propellants for rockets.

Anyway, he was killed by an accidental explosion at that plant not too long after I met him.

Even the Augusta Powder Works had one accidental explosion during the Civil War. If I recall correctly, it was believed that a man that was a pipe smoker was responsible for the explosion. So, the King's Mill policy of hiring ONLY non-smokers was a very good one!

I understand the reason that Elephant Black Powder went out of business was NOT due to an explosion, but a flood. Diamondback black powder is now made in the old Elephant Plant. The plant is now under now ownership but most of the production workers are the same ones that worked for Elephant.

[DAVE FRANCE]

I have a book with the title "Black Powder''. It has a history of black powder plants in the US and many of them blew up. Several in the US and other countries have blown up since I joined the N-SSA in 1973. If there was no need for black powder for the military, there might not be enough demand to produce it in the US.

Several years ago Steve Light told me there are people who make black powder for themselves. I looked black powder up on the internet, and he was right. In the 1960s plants that made solid fuel rockets blew up. Blew up does not mean the whole plant blew up.

David

[Timmeu]

HI

I found this on the web

http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/powdermill.html

Enjoy the read!

[jbarber]

Marty, many thanks for your research. A most interesting read. I was unaware that there was more than one powder mill in the vicinity and that Peters had a cartridge plant there also. If you attend the Union Guards shoot later this month, I'll shake your hand. Regards, Jon Barber, 110th OVI

[Timmeu]

I will be at the shoot. I have been trying to track down the John Road mentioned in the article. He could be one of 3 I have found through Ancestory.com. He sounds like quite a character. I need to try and find an obit or death notice.

[Bob Huntoon]

Actually, I remember reading either in an article in the old Blackpowder Cartridge Rifle Magazine or the Dixie Black Powder Annual that Dupont and then GOEX actually used Walnut shells instead of any other charcoal source in making their powder.

Have wondered, when OTHER powders have come on the market and been proclaimed superior, that it was due their using a better charcoal source than Walnut shells.

Have heard the description of CS Manufacured powder being superior to US and ENGLISH powder before - the willow charcaol was always cited as the reason.

Digger