Hi!
I was wondering if other AACW players in the forum know of some interesting books about Union/CSA industry? The Civil War armies, battles, politics are IMO well covered topics, ample Internet references etc., while industry generally boils down to railroads and Tredegar Iron Works/Atlanta Rolling Mill being to little in face of the Union superior industry capability. Which ONE book would you recommend to a person looking for an in-depth account of industry during the Civil War period?
'Sinews of War' by Benjamin W Bacon. How Technology, Industry and Transportation Won the Civil War.
Written mainly from the Northern side but contans info on both. I haven't seen much that talked about Southern industrialization during the War, because I think there isn't much to discuss. The South depended on incentives to get private individuals to develop necessary industries (except for military imperatives like the Confederate gunpowder mill and the Niter Bureau). Generally these incentives failed.
Take the case of the ironclads at New Orleans. The Confederate Navy contracted with two private companies, each of which was to build one ironclad warship for the defense of New Orleans. The ships were enormous, and very powerful. Neither was ever completed and only one saw combat. Why? Labor shortages, lack of armor plate, lack of iron to be rolled into plate, lack of steam machinery, failure of railroads to transport some of the machinery from Richmond to New Orleans, etc.
Probably the two biggest problems were, first, that the South could not (or would not) let trained workers out of the Army to build warships, steam engines and repair railroads, and second that the South lacked the tools to make the tools to build the machinery it needed.
Tredegar Iron Works never ran at more than a fraction of its full capacity. Why? No iron. Why no iron? Because there was no skilled labor available to dig it and smelt it into pig iron, and no spare railroad capacity to transport the iron from Alabama to Richmond. The cannon works were built in Selma largely because of that city's proximity to the iron.
Shameless plug: This was my solution.
It's an AAR of a Railroad Tycoon scenario called 'American Civil War'.
Written mainly from the Northern side but contans info on both. I haven't seen much that talked about Southern industrialization during the War, because I think there isn't much to discuss. The South depended on incentives to get private individuals to develop necessary industries (except for military imperatives like the Confederate gunpowder mill and the Niter Bureau). Generally these incentives failed.
Take the case of the ironclads at New Orleans. The Confederate Navy contracted with two private companies, each of which was to build one ironclad warship for the defense of New Orleans. The ships were enormous, and very powerful. Neither was ever completed and only one saw combat. Why? Labor shortages, lack of armor plate, lack of iron to be rolled into plate, lack of steam machinery, failure of railroads to transport some of the machinery from Richmond to New Orleans, etc.
Probably the two biggest problems were, first, that the South could not (or would not) let trained workers out of the Army to build warships, steam engines and repair railroads, and second that the South lacked the tools to make the tools to build the machinery it needed.
Tredegar Iron Works never ran at more than a fraction of its full capacity. Why? No iron. Why no iron? Because there was no skilled labor available to dig it and smelt it into pig iron, and no spare railroad capacity to transport the iron from Alabama to Richmond. The cannon works were built in Selma largely because of that city's proximity to the iron.
Shameless plug: This was my solution.
It's an AAR of a Railroad Tycoon scenario called 'American Civil War'.
I would be interested in getting the photos you used, like the Montgomery ironworks and such, they are very good!
I have not read your AAR, just glanced at it, but I'm curious about the military part, is it all coming from history books and your imagination or Railroad tycoon gave you some events related to the ACW in this scenario?
I have not read your AAR, just glanced at it, but I'm curious about the military part, is it all coming from history books and your imagination or Railroad tycoon gave you some events related to the ACW in this scenario?
Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."
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Jabberwock
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Wonderful AAR!
I just spent three hours reading your AAR from end to end instead of playing AACW!
[color="DimGray"] You deserve to be spanked[/color]
I apologize for the delay in replying to your comments - I hadn't realized I had left these unanswered.
Pocus, the pics are straight off of Google, though I believe what I titled the Montgomery ironworks is actually a picture of a mill in England at about the same time. I'll be glad to send you copies of the pics if you PM me an address (or tell me to use the company address). I do have some pics of Alabama ironworks.
Historically, Alabama produced a lot of pig iron from the Tannehill region, and Mobile was an important iron-works town (a lot of the decorative iron railings that New Orleans is famous for were actually made here in Mobile). During the Civil War there wasn't enough manpower or transportation to make use of the deposits, but post-war Birmingham, Alabama became a huge iron and steel producing city. In my story my tycoon forces the development of the iron industry 30-40 years earlier than it actually happened.
I created an American Civil War scenario for Railroad Tycoon 3. Basically you have 20 years to build a railroad and five years of war to put it to the test. Each year of war has a hauling mission, carrying ammunition and weapons to Kentucky or Missouri (1861), Tennessee or Louisiana (1862), Mississippi (1863) and Georgia (1864). Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas may - or may not - join the Confederacy. If at least 5 states remain in the CSA in January of 1865, Lincoln fails re-election and the South wins. You can play as the North, or the South.
The basic plot for the AAR hinges on a few points. One, I assume that an excellent railroad net (coupled with intensive industrialization as the railroad builds the industries to make goods it can haul and sell) enables the South to use an over-sized army corps as a 'fire-brigade' to turn back Union invasions of the West. Two, I make Jeff Davis' health a bit worse than in 'our' history, putting Robert Barnwell Rhett in the Presidency. Rhett may have been one of the very few men who could alienate and insult people faster than Davis. Third, I assume the eventual Confederate victory is hollow - the revolution collapses as the Southern fire-eaters turn in on each other and rip the CSA apart. High war debt, manpower losses, the expense of maintaining a standing army and navy and above all the inability to deal with post-war political realities simply sink the post-war South.
The battles and such in the AAR are descriptions of what was happening in the AAR but the plot elements are all my own imagination.
veji1, thank you for the compliment, and for taking the time to let me know you liked it. There are other AARs of mine here. The link is to a Napoleonic AAR, but my latest one is Frontier, for Galactic Civilizations II. Look in my signature for the links.
Jabberwock, I hope you enjoyed the AAR. Certainly you should spend more time playing AACW and perhaps writing your own AAR for it.
It looks like AGEOD has covered the elements I think essential, and handled them in ways I find appropriate and useful. Now that I have improved my graphics card I hope to take on the game myself sometime soon.
Pocus, the pics are straight off of Google, though I believe what I titled the Montgomery ironworks is actually a picture of a mill in England at about the same time. I'll be glad to send you copies of the pics if you PM me an address (or tell me to use the company address). I do have some pics of Alabama ironworks.
Historically, Alabama produced a lot of pig iron from the Tannehill region, and Mobile was an important iron-works town (a lot of the decorative iron railings that New Orleans is famous for were actually made here in Mobile). During the Civil War there wasn't enough manpower or transportation to make use of the deposits, but post-war Birmingham, Alabama became a huge iron and steel producing city. In my story my tycoon forces the development of the iron industry 30-40 years earlier than it actually happened.
I created an American Civil War scenario for Railroad Tycoon 3. Basically you have 20 years to build a railroad and five years of war to put it to the test. Each year of war has a hauling mission, carrying ammunition and weapons to Kentucky or Missouri (1861), Tennessee or Louisiana (1862), Mississippi (1863) and Georgia (1864). Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas may - or may not - join the Confederacy. If at least 5 states remain in the CSA in January of 1865, Lincoln fails re-election and the South wins. You can play as the North, or the South.
The basic plot for the AAR hinges on a few points. One, I assume that an excellent railroad net (coupled with intensive industrialization as the railroad builds the industries to make goods it can haul and sell) enables the South to use an over-sized army corps as a 'fire-brigade' to turn back Union invasions of the West. Two, I make Jeff Davis' health a bit worse than in 'our' history, putting Robert Barnwell Rhett in the Presidency. Rhett may have been one of the very few men who could alienate and insult people faster than Davis. Third, I assume the eventual Confederate victory is hollow - the revolution collapses as the Southern fire-eaters turn in on each other and rip the CSA apart. High war debt, manpower losses, the expense of maintaining a standing army and navy and above all the inability to deal with post-war political realities simply sink the post-war South.
The battles and such in the AAR are descriptions of what was happening in the AAR but the plot elements are all my own imagination.
veji1, thank you for the compliment, and for taking the time to let me know you liked it. There are other AARs of mine here. The link is to a Napoleonic AAR, but my latest one is Frontier, for Galactic Civilizations II. Look in my signature for the links.
Jabberwock, I hope you enjoyed the AAR. Certainly you should spend more time playing AACW and perhaps writing your own AAR for it.
It looks like AGEOD has covered the elements I think essential, and handled them in ways I find appropriate and useful. Now that I have improved my graphics card I hope to take on the game myself sometime soon.Thanks for the feedback Director. If you still have these images around, my email is support@ageod.com
Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."
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