Substance Abuse

London’s sudden change to stalling tactics was all that was required to set off alarm bells in Washington. Someone who worked in the White House, and we are not certain who because the person changes with each retelling, tried to calm the situation down by claiming that this was somehow normal. We do know that this set Roosevelt off like a volcano. He then shut the person down by proclaiming, “they are the ones who sent us this proposal! The only reason they would back off now is if something has changed! That something would have to be big!”

When Roosevelt looked around, all he could see was the very thing that Washington insiders had been paranoid about, for months. They were afraid the Confederates would suddenly have the ability to launch their own fire bombing raids on the US. The military had quite confidently assured the White House that the CSA had insufficient quantities of the substances required to make fire bombs. That is not to say that they lacked the resources entirely. What US intelligence was talking about was that the Confederates simply did not have enough to make the number of bombs that were required to create a fire storm of the type that had consumed Atlanta. It was estimated that it would take years before such a stock pile could be amassed. They were even more confident of this when their own program proved to be very slow in replacing their own pyrotechnics.

This might have reassured the military but, most of the older politicians, some of whom had clear memories of the last war, never counted the Confederacy out so easy. Too many times in the past, when it was thought the Confederates lacked something, they managed to find a way around the problem and, as events would prove, this time was no exception. It seemed only logical to many of these people, including Roosevelt, that sooner or later the CSA would attempt to do something. The real question for these men was, could they deliver an equally devastating blow. Roosevelt was betting that they could not.

In Richmond, Joe Wheeler was aware of the same sets of figures that Roosevelt had in Washington. Just as many of the older politicians in Washington had feared, the Confederacy did come up with what they hoped was a workable solution. It was very true that the CSA lacked sufficient ingredients to turn out effective munitions of the types that were favored by the US but, as one young staffer at Mechanics Hall pointed out, “we’re only trying to start a fire, right? How hard can it be?” They quickly sought alternatives and found one flammable substance that their nation had in abundance, even if most of it was illegal, in most parts of the Confederacy, at the time. This substance was plain and simple alcohol.

Unlike the situation that occurred a decade after the war, in the US, there were no national prohibitions against alcohol in the Confederate States. The very fundamentals of their government prevented such things from ever becoming law. With a few noted exceptions, even most States in the CSA refused to pass such laws. This exact same situation would later be the primary cause of the Confederacy becoming the center of one of the biggest drug smuggling operations in the hemisphere, when other illicit substances such as marijuana, would be outlawed in the US.

Despite the lack of any resolution at the national and state levels, this did not prevent counties and cities from going dry and, in the CSA, there were many. Entire rural swatches became no alcohol zones and it created some strange situations. When many of these prohibited counties suddenly noticed that a great deal of their money was migrating towards urban centers, mostly spent to wet the lips of thirsty drunks, they did their best to shut this down. It suddenly became illegal to transport alcohol in some area’s and, when this happened, those who preferred a drink simply starting making their own. Before long their neighbors wanted a drink as well and these home manufacturing centers suddenly turned to selling their products. Some of these would grow into very monumental, if not illegal, operations that would not only rival legal alcohol sales but, surpass them in many ways.

In 1901, this underground cottage industry was tolerated by all but a few, the butt of many jokes, and even had become something of a cultural legend in many places. Now these men, who had been hunted by government authorities for years, were being asked by that government to step up and save their homeland. Many of these men would eagerly cooperate, although, the quantities that had been collected and ‘processed’ by November were still not what Mechanics Hall had hoped for. When Wheeler ordered his Air Corps to put a priority on the operation, and be ready by a dead line in early November, this caused some panic.

There were many, in the Confederate Military, that were of the opinion that the shortages were due to the reluctance of their illicit industry to give up their entire supply. This seemed logical enough since a good number of these men still had to make a living and no amount of patriotism will do you much good if you are starving to death. This might explain why a sensible commander like Manget, decided not to lean too heavily on men who were already very good at hiding things. Instead, he began rounding up stocks of legal liquors. Surprisingly, the owners of these operations were just as eager to support the war effort as was their outlaw counterparts.

The real problem did not come from the alcohol manufacturers at all but, from the very county governments who had outlawed the substances in the first place. It did not help that the main Confederate air base was located in a dry county and, when the local Sheriff became aware of what was being transported in his jurisdiction, he showed up at the front gate with several deputies and announced he was confiscating the supplies. The Confederate soldiers, that outnumbered law enforcement on a scale of over ten to one, disagreed and the Sheriff was forced to back down. This did not hamper attempts to stop the transport of alcohol and Manget was forced to put guards on most of his shipments. It would also not be his only source of trouble.

The single largest stockpile of alcohol, that Manget could reach, was sitting in Tennessee. It all belonged to the maker and supplier of a bourbon that was heavily exported and world known. In peace time it was the single largest employer in the county where it was located and, oddly enough, it was also illegal to sell in that very same county. The owners of the operation were more than happy to donate some of their stockpiles to the military and, in fact, it was a considerable supply. The problem came when the army tried to remove the casks from the dark and damp store houses where the liquid was aged.

County officials showed up and tried to prevent the soldiers from doing their jobs. The officials were followed by a sizable group of deputized citizens who were all heavily armed. The soldiers pointed out their orders, signed by the President of the Confederacy, to confiscate the liquor. The county officials refused to recognize the authority of the President. They thought that to do such a thing was immoral and went even further by stating that no one had even voted for Joe Wheeler in their county anyway. The officer in charge, a young lieutenant, was arrested and thrown in jail. His men were sent back empty handed.

Manget did not react to this matter with any great emotion. He simply picked up the phone and reported the situation to Richmond. Wheeler was informed of the incident in less than an hour and he reacted with great resolve. The Confederate Army detailed an entire battalion to literally invade the county and confiscate the alcohol. They went further than the agreed amount and just took everything instead. This in entire incident would remain controversial for years and would later wind up in the Supreme Court where the government was forced to pay an undisclosed amount of damages. That would be much later and, for the time, the situation was resolved and Manget suddenly had what he needed to manufacture the required number of bombs. Most of the ordinance would wind up being armed with grade A, expensive, Tennessee sipping bourbon.

The Confederate bomb was far less hi tech than it’s US counterpart. You simply filled a container with alcohol. The finished product was very heavy, cumbersome, and as the case would prove it was also extremely delicate. You then attached a fuse to the side and this was in direct contrast to the explosive itself. While the bombs were primitive the detonator was actually very high tech in that it was filled with a mixture of chemicals that would combust at high temperatures once exposed to air. Many war projects came to a complete stop in order to make the required number of these devices that required some very high tech machine tools for that time. Fortunately for the Confederates, these devices were only needed to spark the fuel so the amount of needed, industrial grade, chemicals was small. It was usually less than a thimble full per device.

The job of making the detonators was miraculously completed, showing what can happen when people are properly motivated by the fear of a foreign invader, and enough were delivered in time for Manget’s people to attach them to the makeshift collection of bomb casings they had been assembled. The idea behind the weapon was simple. You drop the bomb, it shatters on impact, releasing the alcohol, and the detonators cause a spark that is hot enough to set off the fumes. In theory, if you drop enough of these, you should be able to get a large enough fire that would begin to spread on it’s own.

A variety of cases were used and they only really had two qualifying factors. One was that they could contain no less than fifty gallons of liquid and the other was that they broke on impact after being dropped from a few thousand feet. The original idea was to use wooden caskets, of the kind that was made for storing alcohol, but these proved to be inadequate in supply. That was why many of the bombs wound up in flimsy metal drums and they eventually ran out of those as well. This caused Manget to have to sit back and dream up an entirely new weapon on the spot. That’s how they came up with the idea for the ‘bomblet.” What they did have an almost unlimited supply of were five gallon jugs made of either glass or ceramics. They did not have enough detonators for all of these but, it was pointed out, they didn’t need them. All that was required was to drop enough of the smaller bomblets on the target with a detonator on only one in ten. If they used these after the big bombs, there should be more than enough heat to combust all of the alcohol.

It was not a perfect solution but, ultimately, Manget found that he had little choice but, to try it. The unrealistic dead line was moved up once again and, this time, Manget also received his target along with his orders. The entire Confederate Air Flotilla was going to New York City.