The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Although there is no text, reference, excerpt, or context attached, we can comment on the following general terms.
I think the soldiers felt confident about the Confederacy using the strategy for gunpowder because they knew it was congruent with the Confederate strategy of attrition of the Union Army.
The Confederate Army depended so much on gunpowder. Indeed it was a vital resource for them. This gunpowder was produced domestically by the Confederates
Unfortunately for them, the production of gunpowder suffered a reduction of niter in the times of teh Civil War. Niter was a key ingredient to produce gunpowder. So knowing about this shortage of niter, the Union troops always tried to sabotage and impede the importation of niter from Europe and Asia.
