Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/222

 A Sketch of the Life of General Gorgas. 221

intended originally, the training unskilled laborers into skilled work- men, the frequent necessity for giving up such workmen as there were to the crying demand for men in the ranks, the organizing and drilling of battalions for temporary service, from men who had to shoulder the musket one day and go back to the anvil and the file the next, the looking after the wants of those men, and to a consid- erable extent of their families, for food and clothing, the breaking up, sometimes literally at a day or two's notice, of a whole establish- ment which it had taken months to create, loading machinery, material and men upon freight trains, to be moved off to a new point where all had to be again set to work with the least possible delay, only to be again dislodged a few weeks later."

Of General Gorgas himself, during those troublous times, three impressions specially recur to me:

ist. The quietness of demeanor and absence of impatience, or con- fusion with which his work was done.

2d. The capability which he possessed of working through subor- dinates. While clear and decided in his general instructions, he was always ready to give to officers under him the amplest field in which to exercise their own discretion and ingenuity as to details, to show what they could do in the way of overcoming difficulties or accom- plishing results; and no one could be more fair, more generous in recognizing whatever individual merit was thus exhibited by his subordinates no one less anxious to claim such merit or praise for it for himself.

3d. The breadth of view with which he continually strove, not merely to keep up with the overwhelming demands of each day and each month, for war material for immediate use, but to steadily im- prove the organization of the bureau under his charge, to make it more efficient in personnel and material.

As the " Bureau of Foreign Supplies" grew out of his suggestions and practical action, so did the Mining and Nitre Bureau, of which Colonel I. M. St. John was made the chief. Through this officer the whole nitre-bearing area of the country was laid off into districts, and production was in every way stimulated. This is equally true as i<> lead, iron, copper, chemical supplies and leather.

General Gorgas had a quick appreciation of men, and was admira- ble in the selection of officers to execute his orders. Colonel G. W. Rains was designated to erect and operate the powder works at Augusta, Ga. Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Mallet (now the distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Viiginia), was made