Yes... church bells from all over the South. Went to the Tredegar Ironworks for casting into bronze cannons...
Bronze was the best cannon material. But iron was also very good. But I am reading an amazing book right now called "Ironmaker to the Confederacy" about Tredegar. And the details about the difference between pig iron and gun iron.... amazing!
Economics and the realities of the South are a very hot topic right now. And it's a coincidence that as I research some of the cannons I am restoring... and the environments in which they are built... are giving some amazing insight into Southern economics.
Myth and memory argues that the South was doomed from the start, based on their industrial capacity. This *may* not be correct. There was plenty of capacity, but the states were so insular and self-focused... that a surplus of cloth in North Carolina... never helped out Virginia. A huge surplus of corn and animal forage... never helped out iron forges in Tennessee. Which would have fed the Tredegar and other ironworks in GA and NC, etc. The CSA states were so focused on their own needs and their own insular, selfish hoarding economies... that they never shared with the "Nation" of the South.
There is, IMHO, now a good interpretation that the CSA had everything they needed, industrially, to be... just fine. But they were all so 'States rights' focused that they never supported the entire CSA nation. And, as a result, each state ended the war with their own various 'surpluses' and hoardes of material... but were never able/willing to relinquish it to their neighbor states... to win as a nation.
The Army of Northern Virginia was threadbare and barefoot.... when the North Carolina warehouses had a massive surplus of uniforms and shoes. When Tredegar sent agents to buy corn and forage (to keep their ironworkers and animals fed) down to Georgia where there was a surplus... the Georgia Governor had them arrested for "exporting war material."
States rights... went too far. IMHO (and this is a recent thought)... the over-aggressive statism of the South... failed to support the entity as a whole and, probably, cost the South victory. While the Union was inward-focused... and cooperating. All the Southern states were so focused on their own individualtiy... that they not only were against the Union... they were against all the other CSA states, too!
The documentation on this is pretty, well, damning. And this is from a Northerner!
Cheers,
Sirhr