Josiah Gorgas

Josiah Gorgas (July 1, 1818 – May 15, 1883) was the head of the Confederate States of America Ordance Bureau in the American Civil War, responsible for procuring weapons and ammunition for the Confederate armies; he was a brigadier general at the end of the war. Later, he was president of the University of Alabama.

As chief of ordnance, Gorgas managed to keep the Confederate armies well supplied, despite the Union blockade, and even though the South had hardly any munitions industry – and, indeed, very little industry of any kind – before the war began. In this effort he worked closely with the Fraser, Trenholm shipping company that brought in shipments of ordnance by means of blockade runners. He kept diaries during the war which are now a valuable source of information for historians.