Gorgas, Josiah (1818–1883)

US soldier. He commanded the US arsenal near Mobile, Alabama, but came to loathe abolitionists, and with the secession he resigned his commission and joined the Confederate army as chief of ordnance. He set up a series of arsenals and organized the production of arms and ammunition so that Confederate forces were amazingly well supplied to the very end of the war. From 1869–78, Gorgas taught engineering at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He was elected president of the University of Alabama in 1878, but was unable to take up the post because of poor health. He was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.