Rebel Gunpowder
Author Unknown
-From the Selma, Alabama Sentinel of October 1, 1863.
-The Ladies of Selma are respectfully requested to preserve their chamber-ley collected about their premises, for the purposes of making 'Nitre.' Wagons, with barrels, will be sent around for it by the subscriber.
John Harrolson - Agent of Nitre and Mining Bureau
John Harrolson! John Harrolson!
You are a funny creature;
You've given to this cruel war
A new and curious feature.
You'd have us think while ev'ry man
Is bound to be a fighter,
The women, (bless their pretty dears,)
Should be put to making nitre.
John Harrolson! John Harrolson!
How could you get the notion
To send your barrels 'round the town
To gather up the lotion.
We think the girls do work enough
In making love and kissing.
But you'll now put the pretty dears
To patriotic pissing!
John Harrolson! John Harrolson!
Could you not invent a meter,
Or some less immodest mode
Of making our salt-petre?
The thing, it is so queer, you know-
Gunpowder, like the crankey-
That when a lady lifts her shift
She shoots a bloody Yankee.
John Harrolson! John Harrolson!
What're was your intention,
You've made another contraband
Of things we hate to mention.
What good will all our fighting do,
If Yanks search Venus' mountains,
And confiscate and carry off
These Southern nitre fountains!
Note: "Chamber ley" is an alternate spelling of "chamber-lye" a euphemism for urine. Saltpeter, also known as niter, is any of several nitrogen-based compounds which urine is rich in, and is a key component of gunpowder. (Potassium nitrate is preferred.) Sniffing out all possibilities, saltpeter companies also used human waste from public outhouses. "Night-soil" collectors would empty the facilities into a big wagon, then haul it off for saltpeter processing.
-an interesting example of Civil War era censorship is the following version of the above poem that appeared in the Daily Times (Leavenworth, Kansas) on April 21, 1864 where the editor apparently removed the scatological portions of the poem:
John Harrolton! John Harrolton
You are a funny creature;
You've given this "cruel war"
A new and curious feature.
You'll have us think while every man
Was bound to be a fighter,
The women (bless the pretty dears,)
Should be put to making niter.
John Harrolton! John Harrolton!
Where did you get the notion
To send your barrels round the town,
To gather up the lotion?
