Josiah Gorgas (July 1, 1818 – May 15, 1883) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War and was later president of the University of Alabama.

In this effort he also worked closely with the Fraser, Trenholm shipping company that brought in shipments of ordnance by means of blockade runners.

[4] Ultimately the decision to participate in the secession, apparently motivated as much because of professional conflict with his commander as by political principle, he moved to Richmond and became chief of ordnance for the Confederacy with the rank of major.

During the summer of 1861, Gorgas stockpiled supplies and prepared his first load of cargo while the Trenholm company procured a suitable ship for the voyage.

He implemented President Davis's wish and helped facilitate the commissioning of George Washington Rains, a North Carolina native and West Point graduate with extensive military service who was working as a Northern industrialist when the war broke out.

[2] After the war, Gorgas purchased an interest in the Brierfield Furnace in Bibb County, near Ashby in Alabama, which had helped supply the Confederate Naval Ordnance Works in Selma.

[2][7] In 1870, Gorgas accepted a position as the 2nd vice chancellor of the newly established University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

His position there was marked by discord with the board of trustees and the stress of keeping the university financially afloat.

Their oldest son, William Crawford Gorgas (born 1854) served as Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and is credited with implementing preventive measures against yellow fever and malaria that allowed for the completion of the Panama Canal.