Mike,
After weighing your latest post and some of the conclusions therein I have to offer my thoughts on your considered opinion. You are a recognized expert on many things related to this war and you have certainly been working at it far longer than I have. However, I know of no other person who has put the time and effort into a careful study of Selma as have I for the past 13 years. And these last 13 years have been every day, all day. Not classroom hours or incidental studies. Along the way I have also had an opportunity to study other topics although most of those (i.e. naval affairs at Hampton Roads, Mobile Bay, ironclads, etc.) connect to Selma in one way or another hence my interest. The research has introduced me to many new friends and serious researchers as well. When I began this study it was my misinformed opinion that all Selma records had been destroyed explaining why the story of Selma was largely told from oral history, family letters and incidental records from oblique sources. Then I heard about a college paper by Mr. Earnest B. Johnson, Jr. formerly of Selma. Having found him after some searching he provided the first key to the first door opened for my work. All Selma records had NOT been lost when the city was sacked during Wilson's vengeance raid although almost all local records had been destroyed. The papers of the Naval Gun Foundry & Ordnance Works and the Selma Arsenal survived in part because they were GOVERNMENT offices. Letter books, financial records and some other correspondence survived as there were duplicate copies of many if not most of these documents elsewhere. Private property and accompanying records were destroyed when the yankees burned the town. Columbiana, Alabama, is located about 65 miles north of Selma by modern road routes. The travel distance in 1865 would have been closer to 80 miles due to the layout of the Alabama & Tennessee Rivers Rail Road which served as the primary link between Selma and C. B. Churchill, Co. then located in Columbiana. Most of the smaller furnaces located up the line produced raw pig iron which was sold to manufacturers in Selma, Columbus, Georgia, Atlanta, etc. The C. B. Churchill Company was a highly capable manufacturer whose product is well and widely recognized from their previous activities in Natchez, and Corinth, Mississippi. The fact that the man who was arguably the best furnace master in North America at the time worked for them speaks volumes about the firm. George Peacock, because of his reputation, had been hired away from the Churchill firm shortly after Catesby Jones took over the operation of the NGF&OW in Selma. Jones and the Navy agreed to pay Peacock 1/3 again more than Jones himself was being paid to command the facility. So it is clear to history that the Churchill firm was both highly capable in terms of finished product AND 3 to 4 days march removed from the sacking of Selma when Wilson arrived (Upton’s cavalry did destroy the facilities of the Churchill company on or about the 30th).
Contrary to the official versions of events, the yankee soldiers had been teased for many months with the promise of Selma as a prize ever since Grant and the army had agreed to the creation of Wilson’s cavalry unit. During their entire time camped near Waterloo/Gravelly Springs waiting for suitable circumstances (weather, supplies, etc.) Wilson had promised Selma as the reward for their patience. After all, the yankees had been frustrated in their failure to capture Selma since it had become such a huge thorn in their backsides since early in 1862. So the stage was set for what actually did take place beginning April 2, 1865. The battle was short but sharp and all unfiltered accounts tell of a scene similar to the sacking of Atlanta. Soldiers, in many cases drunk on stolen whisky, when loosed on the town set fires, despoiled homes and stores, killed all animals and livestock, spoiled food stocks, abused women and continued to do so for at least three days until the pleas of locals finally caused Wilson to rein in his unruly mob – to a degree. Now in this process it is clear from the unofficial and the OFFICIAL records that the troops destroyed all local industrial activities as such were deemed to be “of military value”. These places of business were in Selma, not in a place 3 or 4 days away (Wilson reports that his troops averaged 18.75 miles per day during his raid). Other than some financial records from the Army Ordnance records there was little left to record the business activities of these individual facilities.
The bottom line is that while the town of Selma itself was home to at least 7 individual foundries and machine shops there were at least another half dozen furnaces north of town also producing iron and product for the Selma shops. Now, in my humble opinion, it is difficult to construct any concept of Selma and her role in the production of munitions that doesn’t include the production of massive quantities of artillery ammunition (Winslow reports over 66,000 rounds destroyed) being produced there. Add to this the archeological evidence resulting from the recovery of thousands of these rounds from the river there since at least as far back as 1959, it is obvious that there is much that happened there that has not yet or may never be fully recognized.
Now, to address the idea that Selma did not or could not manufacture segmented shells I think it is worth noting that of the total of 15-18 of the 3.67” segmented “Broun” shells known to exist were found in Selma (I could throw a rock to within 50 feet of the recovery location) it is difficult for me to understand why such projectiles would have been sent to Selma from elsewhere in such limited quantities. Field recoveries do not lead one to believe that these projectiles were ever widely distributed. On the other hand, shipping such a small quantity for examination/copying is counter-intuitive as samples were routinely sent to Mallet in Macon for evaluation.
If one believes everything one reads then I would urge caution in some sources. There is a well and widely known book cataloging cannon of that war. In the passages about Selma, and in telcons with one of the authors, the Selma Naval Gun Foundry was said to be ineffective and in many ways a failure. I could not disagree more. The actual facts speak for themselves and it is no longer necessary to argue over the recognized superiority of the guns made there.
Lastly, one truth that I have discovered in the course of my work is that each time it appears that the sources of archival/archeological evidence on Selma have been exhausted something new appears. In 2012 it was my great pleasure to receive copies of another trove of the CSN ordnance files when a carton with six 2 1/2 “ three ring binders arrived from a fellow researcher. Were there duplicates of some of my files? Yes. But there were also documents such as the shop notes of Jones dating from before the war until well afterwards. These notes detailed skills and knowledge beyond what many would have considered possible for the time. That there are documents referencing segmented shells from Augusta or anywhere else does not preclude the manufacturing of similar projectiles in Selma - or elsewhere for that matter. It is my intention to continue my research focus on Selma and to advocate for facts – archival or archeological. In the meantime the evidence indicates that these segmented projectiles WERE made in Selma – perhaps not exclusively but nevertheless, some, at least, were made there.
Again, it is both dangerous to the writer and a disservice to history to assume facts. So, were segmented Broun shells made exclusively in Augusta? Given the skills and capabilities along with the recovery evidence from Selma, I doubt so.
