Did the South really melt down church bells for metal? Brass frames on G/G rev?

[His lordship.]

Being interested in Confederate revolvers, why did they use brass frames on the Griswold and Gunnison versions, and use ferrous metals on the Dance Brothers, and Leech and Rigdon frames?  The rifles the South made did not use brass, what really was the metal situation during the war?

I had read that the South was so metal starved that they melted down church bells.  Is that true? 
 
Thanks.

[Larry L]

In a letter from my ancestor who was with the Louisiana 8th, they did indeed scavenge church bells and other bells for the metals. Can't tell you about the pistols but I would assume it's because they used what was at hand.


 I don't remember which episode it was but in a TV series where they took TV/Movie stars back in their ancestry, one of the black guys they researched had one of his ancestors making pistols for the Confederacy. Might have been Emmitt Smith or Spike Jones but it ended up being a pistol maker I had never heard of. Pictures they showed of it looked like a medium sized barn. The Confederacy was making firearms anywhere they could get somebody to do it. They also bought Whitworth Rilfes, some with scopes for snipers. Like to research Civil War, look at the use of snipers during the Civil War. It's certainly not how we use them today.

[Bugflipper]

The North had the majority of the steel mills. Down South they just salvaged what they could. Down in Anniston, AL there was a foundry that made chain. The old way was to pour half a link in each section of the mold then a blacksmith would weld the two pieces together to form a link and then a chain. They pulled up the railroad spikes, put them in the molds and used the half links in cannons.
Also the tracks were melted down and used. I don't know what they made out of them but most likely they could be a base metal for guns, swords and knives if they didn't have the proper strength for them.
 Also with so many casualties a lot of Yankee weapons were issued back out to Confederate troops. The biggest problem was there were no standardized calibers. A lot of the Northern and Southern guys might just be carrying their personal rifles. It could be a metric caliber or standard. So a fellow would have to melt down bullets or balls over a campfire if he was lucky enough to have a mold. If not he was limited to how many rounds he had and would have to pick up another rifle from a fallen soldier. I think I read somewhere that the Union had over 100 calibers in service and there was no way to supply that many different sizes. It was said that the Union soldiers started leaving their molds back at the rear camp if possible so if they fell the Southerners would have a limited amount of rounds to use against the Northerners.


Here's a poem on the bells. http://npsgnmp.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/confederate-cannons-yankee-church-bells/

[Swampman]

The south was well supplied throughout the war.  They did make some cannons using scrap brass & church bells.  Railroad iron would have been fine for barrels.
 
http://npsgnmp.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/confederate-cannons-yankee-church-bells/

[eastbank]

the north was making millions of .58 mimi balls a month useing cold swageing machines.very few northern bullets were cast by the civil war soldger in the field. eastbank.

[coyotejoe]

Bells are not made from brass, but bronze, brass is a dead metal and a brass bell would not ring. The reason for brass framed revolvers was not a shortage of iron. The thing the south was most short of was production machinery. Brass or bronze can be cast very close to final dimensions and it machines much more easily than iron or steel. That is the same reason brass framed revolvers are cheaper to produce today, even though brass is the more expensive metal. The bells were more likely used for cannon.

[rio grande]

Can't say about the South, but it was commonly done in Europe.

"Bronze bells were the largest metal objects cast at the time (15 -16th centuries) - some weighed several tons. ......bells and guns exchanged form with each other frequently over the centuries. During war, a city's conqueror invariably claimed it's bells, melted them, and reshaped them into guns..... In 1508 Michelangelo melted a great bell captured in Bologna to cast a statue of Pope Julius II. The Duke of Ferrara, known as Il Bombardiere, got hold of the sculpture three years later and destroyed it to cast a massive cannon he named 'Giulia'."

- from 'Gunpowder' by Jack Kelly

Bronze is an amazing alloy....developed before iron but very hard and still used for critical applications.  How those ancient people figured out how to alloy copper and arsenic or tin we'll never know.   I'd love to have a bronze knife.
"Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, for example officers in the Roman army had bronze sword while foot soldiers had iron..." -wikipedia

[Swampyankee25J]

There was an episode on "sons of guns", which showed a Church Bell Cannon,  They said that bells were melted down and made into weapons.  And it fired. 

[us920669]

I actually owned a Griswold once, and it sure was brass.  Looking from the shooting position, you could plainly see that the grip strap screws were in totally different places.  The thing was not symmetrical - must have been cast in a hand - made sand mold. Then I guess a good blacksmith made the grip strap to fit.  If you can find Aubaugh's book "Confederate Revolvers", something else I once had, I think he discusses some of the finer technical points.
I recall reading the diary of a Southern lady once - I don't think Mrs. Chestnut, but maybe it was - she mentions how they came through one time and took all the lead from the window panes.  She talked her son into surrendering his lead toy soldiers.  She did let him keep one to help defend the farm - an officer in a "brave red jacket".