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appointed by Secretary Randolph president of a Board of Examin- ers, and, in conjunction with other officers of the board, conducted in the armies of the Confederacy examinations for the purpose of selecting competent ordnance officers. This was an early appli- cation of the " Civil Service System " to the military department.
The arsenal in Richmond was located near the river, below Cary street, in a number of large brick houses formerly used as tobacco manufactories. On the island, connected by a foot-bridge, was the cartridge-house, where female employees made the cartridges then used. It employed from one thousand to fifteen hundred operatives, and furnished the chief part of the ordnance supply used by the Confederate armies.
In the early part of the war ordnance stores were bought in Europe, and in many instances reached their destination despite the blockaded forts. With these the troops were armed during the first year.
After the Seven Days' battles around Richmond, large numbers of Enfield rifles were secured from the battlefield and carried to the arsenal, repaired and issued to the troops to take the place of the old Austrian rifles and smooth-bore muskets with which many were first provided. Subsequently the blockade became more stringent, and the supplies were becoming exhausted. All the arms used by the Confederates were muzzle-loaders, and it became a matter of ex- treme importance to furnish a supply of percussion caps. The machines then used by us, modelled after the old United States machines, failed to do the work with sufficient rapidity.
In this emergency an ingenious mechanic from Lynchburg, Vir- ginia, invented and made a machine by which we were enabled in twenty-four hours to make, fill and press a million of caps. But in a short time our supply of sheet copper was exhausted, and after the occupation of Chattanooga by the Union troops and the loss of our copper mines in Tennessee, we were placed in a serious dilemma. We had no copper no mines and the blockade was very stringent it was impossible to obtain it. In this emergency, in the spring of 1864, an officer was sent to North Carolina by my order and with the approval of the Chief of Ordnance, Colonel Gorgas, and directed to purchase, cut up, and ship to the Richmond arsenal all the tur- pentine and brandy stills he could find. He was very efficient and successful, and with the copper of these old stills we made all the caps used by the army for the last year of the war.
Percussion caps were filled with fulminate of mercury, made from
