Most of you know that potassium nitrate, also known as nitre or saltpetre (old spelling of saltpeter) is one of the main ingredients of black powder. Therefore, I thought you might enjoy the following.
Wayne
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In October 1863 Jonathan Haralson, a Selma lawyer began quite an unusual project for the sake of the cause.
From a military standpoint one of the most serious shortages of the Confederacy was nitre, an essential element of gunpowder. Before the War there was not a single place in the South where there was any considerable supply of this vital material. The extraction of earth from caves, under stables and many such places was the main source of nitre in the South. One of these beds was located in Selma, and Jonathan Haralson was in charge of this work. In this emergency Haralson had an idea which he proposed to use and so he ran an ad in the Selma paper. This ad started a literary chain reaction.
October 1, 1863
The Selma Sentinel
The ladies of Selma are respectfully requested to preserve all their chamber lye (aka urine) collected about their premises for the purpose of making Nitre. Wagons with barrels will be sent around for it by the subscriber.
(signed) Jno Haralson
Agent Nitre and Mining Bureau
When seeing the wagons making their rounds of the Selma streets, Thomas B. Wetmore (appropriate last name) was inspired to write the following:
"Jno Haralson! Jno Haralson!
You are a funny creature;
You've given to this cruel war
A new and useful feature.
You've let us know, while every man
Is bound to be a fighter,
The women, bless them, can be put
To making lots of nitre.
Jno Haralson! Jno Haralson!
Where did you get the notion
Of sending barrels around our street
To fill them with that lotion?
We thought the women did enough
At sewing shirts and kissing;
But you have put the lovely dears
To patriotic pissing.
Jno Haralson! Jno Haralson!
Can't you suggest a neater
And faster method for our folks
To make up our saltpetre?
Indeed, the thing is so very odd,
Gunpowder like and cranky,
That when a lady lifts her skirt
She shoots a horrid Yankee!"
But the end is not yet. Haralson picked up his pen and in addition to writing to the paper he wrote the following reply to his friend, Thomas B. Wetmore:
"The women, bless their dear souls,
And everyone for war
To 'soldier boys' they'll give them shoes,
Their stockings by the score
They'll give their jewels all away,
Their petticoats to boot
They'll have saltpetre, or they'll shout,
In earnest phrase--'Wet more'!
The women, were it not for them
Our country would be lost;
They charm the world, they nerve our hearts
To fight at every cost.
What care they how our powder's made?
They'll have it, or they'll bore
Through mines or beds in stables laid,
And, straining, cry 'Wet more'!
Women, yes they stoop to conquer
And keep their virtue pure;
It is no harm to kill a beast
With chamber lye I'm sure.
But powder we are bound to have,
And this they've sworn before;
And if the needful thing is scarce,
They'll 'press' it and 'Wet more'!"
All this was too good for the Yankees to keep out of and so when a Boston, Mass., widow read Wetmore's poem she added the following to the trilogy:
"Jno Haralson! Jno Haralson!
We read in song and story
That women's in all these years,
Have sprinkled fields of glory;
But never was it told before
That how, midst scenes of slaughter
Your Southern beauties dried their tears
And went to making water.
No wonder, Jno., your boys were brave
Who would not be a fighter
If every time he shot his gun
He used his sweetheart's nitre?
And, vice versa what could make
A Yankee soldier sadder
Than dodging bullets fired from
A pretty woman's bladder.
They say there was a subtle smell
That lingered in the powder
And as the smoke grew thicker,
And the din of battle grew louder
That there was found in this compound
This serious objection;
The soldiers could not sniff it in
Without a stiff erection."