Consumption and supply of lead.
Allowing for waste, 1500,000,000 of cartridges would require 10,000,000 pounds of lead for these alone, to say nothing of other needs.
Where did all this lead come from?
I make the following rough calculation:
| Pounds. |
| From trans-Mississippi mines (early in the war) | 400,000 |
| From the mines in Virginia (60,000 lbs. per month) | 2,160,000 |
| On hand at arsenals, &c. | 140,000 |
| Imported (not over) | 2,000,000 |
| Picked up through the country and on battle-fields | 5,300,000 |
| ———— |
| 10,000,000 |
This leads to the surprising conclusion that we must have picked up throughout the country over 5,300,000 pounds of lead during the four years of the war. I remember that the window-weights and loose lead about houses yielded 200,000 pounds in
Charleston alone; while the disused lead water-pipes in
Mobile supplied, if I am not mistaken, as much more.
So that these two items alone supplied one-thirteenth of this vast gleaning of the country.
