David Porter McCorkle was a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

Lieutenant in the American Civil War. He ran the Naval Ordnance Works at New Orleans which also served as a laboratory, principally manufacturing shot and shells,

gun carriage A gun carriage is a frame and mount that supports the gun barrel of an artillery piece, allowing it to be maneuvered and fired. These platforms often had wheels so that the artillery pieces could be moved more easily. Gun carriages are also used ...

s for outfitting ships in the Confederate Navy. In March or April 1862, before the city's capture in the Battle of New Orleans, he removed the ordnance and laboratory stores to Atlanta. There, he established shops on lots leased from five different parties (leases to expire in May, 1864) and supplied a large number of projectiles until June 4, 1864 when General Joseph E. Johnston ordered him to remove to Augusta, Georgia. McCorkle wrote to his supervisor,

Catesby ap Roger Jones Catesby ap Roger Jones (April 15, 1821 – June 21, 1877) was an officer in the U.S. Navy who became a commander in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. He assumed command of during the Battle of Hampton Roads and engaged in ...

, on June 8:

I am moving the boilers and engines to-day. All the
lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to c ...
s, planes,
steam hammer A steam hammer, also called a drop hammer, is an industrial power hammer driven by steam that is used for tasks such as shaping forgings and driving piles. Typically the hammer is attached to a piston that slides within a fixed cylinder, but i ...
, etc., are already shipped, and, to crown all, they have given an order to move the hospitals, and I can not get cars enough to move.

In November, he was still at work building a foundry and other temporary structures, but was not at that time actually producing ordnance. After the war, he joined the

Peruvian Navy The Peruvian Navy ( es, link=no, Marina de Guerra del Perú, abbreviated MGP) is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with surveillance, patrol and defense on lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean up to from the Peruvian littoral. Addit ...

with John Tucker. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Peru, which was at war with Spain, invited CSN Admiral J.R. Tucker to join their Navy as a Rear Admiral, bringing with him two staff officers. Tucker accepted and went to Peru with Captain David Porter McCorkle and Commander Walter Raleigh Butt. Following his resignation in 1871 from the Peruvian Navy, Tucker was appointed President of the Peruvian Hydrographical Commission of the Amazon. This Commission, which included David P. McCorkle, explored and surveyed the Upper Amazon River and its tributaries, discovered two new rivers, the Trinidad and the Herrera-yacu.

References

*From the Official Records of the American Civil Warbr>
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/gifcache/moa/ofre/ofre2002/00558.TIF6.gi

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/gifcache/moa/ofre/ofre2002/00767.TIF6.gif] History of Atlanta Confederate States Navy officers People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War American expatriates in Peru Amazon River {{AmericanCivilWar-bio-stub