The daily product of the Works varied with the demand for gunpowder, and with the amount of saltpetre on hand. At no time after their completion were they worked to their full capacity; indeed, were only worked during daylight. Even when supplying the urgent call of General Ripley at Charleston for cannon powder, to replace the twenty-two thousand pounds consumed during the action with the iron-clad fleet; two days' work nearly supplied that amount. Notwithstanding the admirable serving of the heavy artillery at Fort Sumter during that engagement, it would have fallen and Charleston captured, had any but the strongest gunpowder been used. The armor of the iron-clads, though constructed expressly to withstand the heaviest charges and projectiles, gave way before its propelling force. Mr. Davis makes the statement that the engagement between the Alabama and Kearsarge would have resulted in a victory for the former, had Admiral Semmes been supplied with the powder from these works. Any failure in their construction and products would have rested with myself. A carte blanche had been given, and there was no one to share the appalling responsibility. There were made at the Confederate Powder Works at Augusta, commencing April 10, 1862, and terminating April 18, 1865, 2,750,000 pounds, or one thousand, three hundred and seventy-five tons of gunpowder. This was distributed throughout the Confederacy, mostly east of the Mississippi river. There remained on hand, at the Magazine, at the end of operations, about seventy thousand pounds, besides considerable amounts of saltpetre and other material. The Navy Department during the war established a manufactory of gunpowder at Petersburg, Virginia, which was afterwards removed to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then to Columbia, South Carolina. A powder mill was put into operation at Richmond, Virginia, also, at Raleigh, North Carolina, but the extent of their operations is unknown. Two small stamping mills in the northwestern portion of South Carolina, near the mountains, which were erected to make blasting powder for the neighboring tunnel, were visited, but I found that they could be made available only to a very limited extent. The Confederate Powder Works were so constructed that the rough materials were received at the building nearest the city; thence successively passed up the canal from building to building in the progressive stages of manufacture, until it arrived finished and ready for shipping at the Magazine.