Notably, despite being assembled at the Tredegar Ironworks, the Minuteman was built almost entirely of wood, so that the CSA could dedicate its scarce metal supplies to the construction of railroad equipment, ironclads, tanks, and ballistic missiles.[1]

The Minuteman's wooden frame gave it several advantages. Its lighter weight allowed it to fly at a high speed despite limited horsepower.[2] It also had excellent range, a high flight ceiling, a low stall speed, and decent firepower from its twin front-mounted Gatling machine guns. Its great weakness was durability, as the wooden frame couldn't handle sharp maneuvers at high speed and couldn't survive heavy damage in battle. It was also vulnerable to accidental fires from overheating. Later in the war, a decline in the quality of Confederate glue made it prone to accidental crashes stemming from key components coming apart.

A total of 276 Minuteman fighters were produced[3] at Tredegar during the war. Mostly used for scouting and harassment raids, the Minuteman occasionally saw dogfight service as well, especially in the later more desperate phases of the war, where it's fuel efficiency outweighed battlefield concerns. Lt. Ezekiel Rathbone was the most successful Minuteman pilot, claiming 13 aerial kills with the craft before being fatally shot down during the Battle of Franklin in November 1864.[citation needed]

Notably, the Minuteman shared its nickname with a Union aircraft, the Bethlehem Steel Minuteman light bomber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tredegar_Minuteman

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3511475&forum_id=2#32541217)