Ahh, Mr. Miller, you are quite the scholar on these matters. I might have to raise my estimate of a month or two of study up to 3 months!

Seriously, you saw right what I was really wondering about: Where Hood's powder was coming from. Mr. Greg Biggs (he's big on the Tennessee Civil War Round Table and he posts a lot on the Tennessee board) has been trying to find the answer to Hood's powder, and a while back he posted a query on the Alabama board. I searched around and came up with the obituary for the man who was over the Selma Powder Mill (Link Below, if interested), which shows that he was an artillery man. Mr. Biggs took that to mean that Selma only made cannon powder. I had my doubts, but couldn't prove it.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064020/1912-06-20/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1863&index=3&rows=20&words=powder+Selma&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=Selma+Powder&y=7&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

At one point, some Texans tried to (apparently) swim some cattle across the Mississippi for Hood's troops, but didn't make it. There's a lot of great material on Hood's little trip floating around.

I appreciate your expertise, kind Sir.