Corporations of the Confederacy: United Steel
A photo of the United Steel Mill in Jackson, Mississippi, circa 1901.
The United Steel Corporation was formed as a merger between the two smaller New Orleans Steel Works and the Hixton-Jackson Steel & Company in 1880, which was originally named the Hixton-New Orleans-Jackson Steel Corporation, but was renamed to United Steel in 1882. By 1914, United Steel had become the 3rd largest steel manufacturing firm in the Confederacy, with mills in New Orleans, Jackson, Little Rock, and Birmingham alongside with a shipyard in New Orleans and a locomotive factory in Houston. The original owners of the company were H. J. Hixton and O. L. Benlouf, who previously ran the preceding companies. Benlouf would die from a stroke in May of 1894 while Hixton ran the company until 1908 when he retired and handed over ownership to his son named Benjamin. During the First Great War, the United Steel Corporation would sell steel to other companies in support of the Confederate War Effort. It's New Orleans shipyard would manufacture several ships for the Confederate Navy which included submarines, destroyers, and the light cruisers CSS Huntsville and Cowpens. The locomotive factory would manufacture machine-guns, rifles, mortars, and field artillery pieces as well as building transport trucks for the army. After war's end, the Peace Treaty would name the United Steel Corporation as a major contributor to the Confederate War of Aggression, as a result, the company had to pay 65,000,000 Confederate Dollars to the Union as war reparations. From 1917 to 1925, United Steel struggled to stay in business as it was forced to close the locomotive factory and it's mills in Little Rock, Arkansas and Birmingham, Alabama. In 1923, fearing the company might go bankrupt, Benjamin Hixton would sell the company to a businessman named Thomas D. Cunningham. Cunningham with his management would turn the situation around and got it back on it's feet. In the late 1920s, the United Steel Corporation would work with the Confederate Armed Forces in a clandestine rearmament program behind closed doors. The company would help design and build new artillery pieces, armored vehicles, barrels, and warships. Also during this time, Cunningham would also donate sizable amounts of money to the Freedom Party and was also a member of the party. Following the rise of Jacob Featherston, the corporation grew to new heights, aside from it's closed factories being reopened, United Steel would also open new mills in Vicksburg and Shreveport, tractor factories in New Orleans, Montgomery, and Huntsville (which the real intention for these factories was the production of Barrels), and an aircraft factory in Athens, Georgia. United Steel's subsidiaries would include the Galveston Shipyard, Schofield Motor Company, Beech and Dixon Aircraft Company, T&P Motor Company, and the Vicksburg Ship Building Corporation, which would make United Steel the 2nd Largest Corporation of Featherston's Confederacy by 1938. During the Second Great War, United Steel would manufacture weapons ranging from rifles, machine-guns, artillery, aircraft, trucks, armored vehicles, barrels, aircraft, submarines, and warships for the Confederate War Effort. As very few white males were available for it's labor force, the Corporation had to use for it's labor force white women and imported Hispanic laborers. During the conflict as with other major manufacturers, the Union Air Force would bomb United Steel's factories and steel mills in an effort to bring the Confederate War Machine to a halt. By the Spring of 1944, they had mostly succeeded in this goal as United Steel's production levels fall as it's facilities lay in ruins. At the very end of the conflict, Cunningham would attempt to flee to Mexico, but was captured by the Union Army and was a defendant at the 1945 Nashville War Crimes Trial and was charged as being complicit for the Freedomite Crimes Against Humanity and for the Confederacy's War of Aggression against the Union. Cunningham was sentenced to 30 years in prison, there he would spend the remainder of his life until his death on April 9th, 1958. United Steel Corporation would be shut down by the Federal Government in early 1945 and it's factories would either be used for other purposes, abandoned, or were torn down and their materials would be used to rebuild the south.