At the outbreak of the Civil War, the city of Montgomery, Alabama, was chosen as the capital of the Confederacy, but in May 1861 the decision was made to move the capital to Richmond, Virginia. The move was made for a number of reasons. One was that Richmond, as one of the largest cities in the Confederacy, was a manufacturing center and in fact had more industrial capacity than the rest of the Confederacy combined. Among its industries were the Tredegar Iron Works, which provided most of the Confederacy’s munitions, and the largest flour mill in the South. Aiding the city’s industrial development was the James River, which provided the city’s industries with a considerable amount of hydropower.