Gorgas, Josiah

Tenth child of a poor Pennsylvania clockmaker, Josiah Gorgas graduated from West Point and married into Alabama aristocracy. He followed his wife into the Confederacy and served brilliantly as Chief of Ordnance, one of the south's few northern-born generals. After the war he became president of the University of Alabama.
Life Span
to
    Full name
    Josiah Gorgas
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Siblings
    9
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    6
    Family
    Joseph Gorgas (father), Sophie Atkinson Gorgas, Amelia Gayle (wife)
    Education
    West Point (US Military Academy)
    Occupation
    Military
    Educator
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    Confederate Army

    Josiah Gorgas (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    When the Civil War came, Captain Gorgas commanded Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Asked to join the Confederacy, Gorgas hesitated, but his wife's influence and his continuing troubles with superiors pushed him at last to accept a commission (effective 8 Apr. 1861) as major in the artillery of the Confederate states with assignment to the important duty of chief of ordnance. General P. G. T. Beauregard, who knew him slightly, had urged his appointment on President Jefferson Davis. The appointment would be one of Davis's best.

    Gorgas's challenges were staggering. The South boasted scant manufacturing facilities, only one large foundry capable of casting heavy cannon (in Richmond, Va.), and although each state had an armory, arsenals capable of repairing or making arms were few. Across the Confederacy Gorgas counted only 159,010 small arms of all kinds, about 3.2 million cartridges of various calibers, powder enough for another 1.5 million bullets, and an indeterminate amount of cannon powder. Close to 3 million percussion caps were counted, along with saltpeter and sulphur enough to make an additional 200 tons of powder. Supplies were scattered across different states, and governors tended to guard their hoards with parochial jealousy.
    Frank E. Vandiver, "Gorgas, Josiah," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-01181.html.
    Chicago Style Entry Link
    Vandiver, Frank E. "A Note on Josiah Gorgas in the Mexican War." Journal of Southern History 11, no. 1 (February 1945): 103-106. view record
    Vandiver, Frank E. "The Mexican War Experience of Josiah Gorgas." Journal of Southern History 13, no. 3 (August 1947): 373-394. view record
    How to Cite This Page: "Gorgas, Josiah," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/22961.