Major Alfred Mordecai

Son of Jacob educator and merchant Jacob Mordecai and his second wife, Rebecca Mears Mordecai, Alfred Mordecai was born in Warrenton, North Carolina, a few years before his father opened his renowned female academy there. Although most of his Alfred’s thirteen siblings and half-siblings would make their lives in North Carolina (such as half-brother Moses Mordecai) or in Richmond Virginia, his future lay elsewhere.

At age fifteen Mordecai entered West Point. Graduating top of his class four years later, he then became an assistant professor there. Commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers, he oversaw the construction of two forts in Virginia. He subsequently served as commander of the Washington Arsenal and was then promoted to Major in recognition of his service during the Mexican War. After the war he remained in Mexico to survey damages and oversee the construction a national railroad. In 1854 he was dispatched to observe military maneuvers during the Crimean War. Perhaps his biggest impact on the American military was his in helping institute scientific and technical standards, particularly in armaments. He instituted the scientific testing of munitions and weapons for the United States military. He authored the “Second Report of Experiments in Gun Powder” (1849) and “Ordinance Manual for the Use of Officers of the United States Army” (1841), the first manual for standardized manufacturing of weapons with interchangeable parts.

Even with all this movement, Mordecai managed to raise a large family. He married Sarah Ann Hays, daughter of Richea and Samuel Hays, and they had eight children, including Albert, Jr., who followed his father in pursuing a military career.

With the coming of the Civil War, Mordecai faced a dilemma: he had, of course, been raised in the South and his mother and all of his siblings still lived there, many, if not all, of them ardent defenders of slavery and secession. The governor of North Carolina even offered him command of the state troops, but he declined. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to fight. And so, at the age of fifty-seven, Mordecai resigned his army commission. Over the coming decades he worked in the private sector as a railroad executive.

Major Alfred Mordecai

c. 1850–1870