Colonel (later Brigadier-General) Josiah Gorgas served as chief of ordnance of the Confederate States Army throughout the war. He it was who sent Colonel (later Brigadier--General) George W. Rains to Augusta to build the great powder-plant. Facing an apparently insuperable difficulty, in the matter of ammunition, Rains resorted to first principles by collecting 200,000 pounds of lead in Charleston from window-weights, and as much more from lead pipes in Mobile, thus furnishing the South essential means of prolonging the war.

Julius A. de Lagnel was made captain of the Artillery Corps on March 16, 1861, and major of the Twentieth Battalion of Virginia Artillery, July 3, 1862. He was appointed brigadier-general of the provisional Army of the Confederate States, April 15, 1862, but declined the appointment. During most of his service he was in the ordnance bureau at Richmond, Virginia, ably seconding Colonel Gorgas.