Existing comment:
Louisiana & Mississippi:
When Rear Admiral David Farragut's Union fleet passed the forts protecting New Orleans in April 1862, Leeds & Company, the largest cannon foundry there, was denied permission to evacuate its machinery on the grounds that it would spread panic. Confederate ordnance official JW Mallett called the subsequent loss of Leeds "one of the sorest [sic] consequences of the fall of the city." Other firms did manage to leave. Cook & Brother relocated to Athens, Georgia, but most small firms simply ceased operations.
When Mississippi seceded, Jones, McElwaine & Company converted its foundry to arms production and was among the first firms to receive a Confederate government contract. Mississippi bought the plant in 1862 and operated it as the Holly Springs Armory, which produced weapons of inferior quality for a few months before its evacuation in November 1862. With the arrival of Union troops, most arms production in Mississippi ceased. For example, Leech & Ridgon, which had relocated from Memphis, Tennessee to Columbus< Mississippi, had to move again, this time to Greensboro, Georgia, early in 1863. |