BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC) -- Exhibit: Armaments

VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC) -- Exhibit: Armaments:

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Description of Pictures: Arming the Confederacy:
The little-known story of the Confederacy's success in building a military-industrial complex to produce its own weapons is shown through objects from the Maryland-Steuart Collection, considered the world's finest collection of Confederate-made weapons and accouterments. The collection on display includes more than 150 Confederate-made rifles, carbines, muskets, pistols, dirks, belt buckles, and more.

The Virginia Manufactory of Arms Collection:
From 1802 to 1821, the state of Virginia did not rely on the federal government to arm its militia but manufactured its own weapons. This new exhibition presents a comprehensive collection of the products of the Virginia Manufactory of Arms, a state-of-the-art water-powered facility that stood in Richmond. On display are flintlock muskets, rifles, pistols, and swords, including examples of the weapons that were used by the militia defending Virginia during the British campaigns on Chesapeake Bay in 1813–14. This collection is important not only as a chapter in the history of armament, but also as evidence of an episode in the evolution of state and national interests in the early American republic.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. VHSARM_101222_006.JPG: Arming the Confederacy: The Maryland-Steuart Collection: The Civil War was the impetus to the first major attempt of the Southern states to industrialize. Before the war, industrialization was sporadic. Many Southern spokesmen extolled agriculture, but deprecated industry. While defending enslavement of blacks, which they thought industrialization might endanger, they claimed that industry created wage slavery for whites. Ironically, to acquire the arms needed to defend themselves against the northern states from which they had chosen to separate, the South had to emulate the very industrial character of the North they so often had deplored. When the war appeared likely, the individual Southern states, then the Confederate government, began identifying sources of weapons. Federal arsenals were seized and weapons imported from abroad. As the war lengthened, these measures were not enough, but there were only a few small private companies that produced arms it the South and their output was tiny. Many difficulties were encountered, however, in developing a major domestic arms industry. The individual Confederate states, believing themselves sovereign, often acted independently, resulting in a lack of standardization in weapons procurement and chaos in the railroad-based supply system. Also, the Confederacy lacked raw materials. Pennsylvania alone produced more pig iron and there was not a single Southern works for producing gunpowder. There were few skilled mechanics. The little known story of how relatively successful the Confederate in overcoming these obstacles and quickly building an arms industry is the subject of this exhibition. It is told through the collection acquired by the Virginia Historical Society in 1948 from Richard D. Steuart (above), who had two grandfathers and nine uncles who served the Confederate cause. A Baltimore newspaperman, Steuart was widely known for his writings about Confederate arms, and he was awarded honorary membership in the Virginia Historical Society in 1949.
2. VHSARM_101222_010.JPG: "Confederate manufacturers accomplished little short of an industrial revolution..." -- Emory Thomas, The Confederate Nation, 1979 In 1860, William T. Sherman warned a southern friend, "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war on a nation of mechanics. ... You are bound to fail." Nonetheless, at Appomattox, Lee's vastly outnumbered troops had, on average, seventy-five rounds of ammunition left, but no food. Ultimately, the Confederacy did not fail for lack of arms, but some of the factors that kept it from being better armed were important to the result, namely, lack of manpower and raw materials, the inadequate railway system and its disruption early in the war, and, especially, lack of cash and credit owing to the blockade of cotton exports. Captures and imports were the most important sources of weapons, but the development of a domestic arms industry had important consequences. Richmond grew from 37,000 people in 1860 to 100,000 in 1863. Atlanta's population tripled. Not everyone approved. A southern newspaper had editorialized in 1861 that "We want no Lowells, Manchesters [or] Birminghams, for they suit not the genius of our people, our institutions, or our government." Yet, if the South wanted independence, it had to industrialize. It did, but it was too little, too late. War was a catalyst for social change. Industry, once spurned, was encouraged. Cities, though feared as "nurseries of abolitionism," grew. Women and blacks assumed greater prominence in the work force. The parallels with the South's experience in World War II are remarkable. In both conflicts, the South was reluctant to embrace the social changes that accompanied war, but the changes came anyway. People start wars, but wars have a momentum of their own that carries people in unanticipated directions.
3. VHSARM_101222_012.JPG: Technology of Arms: During the first half of the nineteenth century, the standard infantry weapon was the smoothbore flintlock musket, a muzzle-loaded weapon that required a paper cartridge containing a powder charge and lead ball or buckshot to be torn open and the contents poured down the barrel, followed by the paper, and forced down the barrel with a ramrod. To fire, one ignited the powder charge by an unreliable flintlock mechanism that would not fire if the powder was wet or even damp. The search for a less cumbersome and more reliable process led to various technological advances in the years prior to the Civil War -- the replacement of smooth gun barrels by rifled ones, the conversion from a flintlock to a percussion firing mechanism, and the advent of breech-loading weapons, and ones that could fire multiple shots between reloadings. From Single-Shot to Multi-Shot: The change from the single-shot system to the multi-shot firing system is probably one of the most important developments in firearm history. With the advanced capacity to fire many rounds, or bullets, from a single weapon without reloading after each shot, one soldier, with a repeating six-shot weapon, for example, could practically replace five additional soldiers with single-shot firearms. Not only was the firepower capacity increased, but also the time needed to reload after each shot was greatly reduced, allowing the soldier important additional time under battlefield conditions.
4. VHSARM_101222_014.JPG: From Flintlock to Percussion: The flintlock ignition system depended upon producing sparks by striking together flint and steel. The lock action was relatively simple -- a cock held a section of flint and when the trigger was pulled, the cock snapped forward to hit a steel surface. This action showered sparks down into an open pan filled with powder. When ignited by the sparks, the resulting flame went through a small hole in the barrel igniting the main powder charge. The percussion ignition system was a more dependable process than the earlier flintlock system. When the trigger was pulled,a metal hammer snapped forward, striking a very small copper cap (filled with a solid, dry explosive material), which was placed upon a hollow cone or nipple on the barrel. The explosion caused by the hammer striking this percussion cap immediately ignited the powder charge in the barrel, propelling the lead ball or bullet from the muzzle of the barrel. The advance to percussion also made the weapon more dependable because dampness no longer rendered a weapon useless, as it had with the flintlock system.
5. VHSARM_101222_016.JPG: From Muzzleloading to Breechloading: The advance from muzzleloaded to breechloaded weapons increased the rapidity of fire. The muzzle-loading process was cumbersome and could not be done at all on a horseback because the gun had to be upright, the contents of the torn cartridge poured down the barrel, the material packed with a ramrod, the used percussion cap removed and replaced, and the hammer cocked. Breechloading reduced firing time because the cartridge was loaded through the breech without being torn or packed. Once metallic cartridges containing the detonator and projectile were mass produced, breechloaders became widespread. Breechloaders also limited the number of loads one could use. Muzzleloaded weapons could be rendered inoperable if, in the heat of battle, one put in an unopened cartridge, more than one cartridge, or an upside-down cartridge. From Smoothbore to Rifled Barrels: Muskets with smooth barrels were accurate against individuals up to 100 yards and against larger targets, such as masses of troops, up to 200 yards. Rifling, or scoring the inside of the gun barrel with spiral grooves, put a spin on the projectile that increased accuracy, for skilled marksmen at least, up to 600 yards. Rifling was most effective with weapons .58 caliber or less. Larger caliber weapons were weakened by rifling.
6. VHSARM_101222_021.JPG: Arms Procurement: The initial response of each seceding state to the threat of war was to seize any federal arsenal on its soil. By 27 January 1861, every arsenal in the South had been taken except the ones in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, which had not yet seceded. All of the seized weapons were northern made. Arms could also be purchased from northern manufacturers until 9 April 1861. When war broke out a few days later, captured federal weapons, such as those taken after the Union rout at First Manassas, became a major source of supply. Nonetheless, capture was an undependable source and the weapons seized from arsenals were insufficient, so attention turned to Europe, where many southerners thought they could dictate their demand for weapons because of the importance of cotton to the world economy. 1. Procurement: Capture: There was little resistance when forces of the seceded states seized the federal arsenals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; Mount Vernon, Alabama; and Little Rock, Arkansas. The surprisingly easy capture of the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was especially important because it yielded machinery that enabled existing southern facilities to manufacture small arms. Some of this machinery went to the Virginia Manufactory of Arms of Virginia State Armory in Richmond, while the remainder was shipped to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Nonetheless, many of the weapons the Confederates seized were antiquated. In the long run, the capture of weapons from Union armies in the field proved to be equally important as a source of weapons for the Confederate armies.
7. VHSARM_101222_023.JPG: Imported Arms: Before April 1861, individual southern states sought to purchase supplies in Europe, and some did so even after the Confederate government sent its first agent, Caleb Huse, who arrived in London in May. Soon, Edward Anderson was sent to check on Huse and to assist him. By year's end, Huse had broad instructions to purchase materials for the War, Navy, and Quartermaster departments and for the Ordnance and Medical bureaus. To facilitate credit, a Liverpool firm was retained to serve as the Confederacy's financial agent. Huse eventually succeeded in acquiring 350,000 first-class small arms, including prized Enfield rifles, and other state and Confederate agents procured 150,000 more. Eighty percent of these weapons got through the Union blockade, which was more effective at preventing the export of cotton, diminishing the Confederacy's credit. Otherwise, the southern states could have made even greater purchases.
8. VHSARM_101222_029.JPG: Initially, the Confederate government shipped its European purchases on privately owned vessels that carried mostly rifles, revolvers, bayonets, swords, cannon, powder, and cartridges. Later, the Ordnance Bureau bought four vessels abroad that ran the blockade with supplies and returned loaded with cotton. From September 1862 to September 1863, these four vessels delivered four times the quantity of small arms produced during the same period in Richmond, Virginia, and Fayetteville and Asheville, North Carolina, combined. A popular tactic for evading the blockade was sending supplies on vessels from neutral countries to Nassau or other Caribbean ports, where they were transferred to light, swift steam-powered blockade runners. If neutral ships were intercepted en route to the Caribbean, the Union could not seize them without proving the cargo was destined for the Confederacy, an accusation difficult to sustain.
9. VHSARM_101222_031.JPG: 2. The Upper South: Although Confederate Chief of Ordnance Joshia Gorgas lamented that "not a gun, not a gun carriage, and except during the Mexican War, not a round of ammunition had, for fifty years, been prepared in the Confederate states," in fact Richmond's Tredegar Iron Works had produced some weapons since the late 1840s. In general, the states of the upper South had most of what little manufacturing base there was in the Confederacy. Also, they were rich in raw materials, and they had the most extensive railway systems for transporting raw materials to factories and finished goods from them. The problem was that Virginia and Tennessee, especially, were within easy reach of invading Union armies. Much of Tennessee's industrial capacity was lost when Nashville and Memphis fell early in 1862, and for fear of the same, some Virginia plants were relocated.
10. VHSARM_101222_032.JPG: Virginia: Joseph Reid Anderson's Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, which began making weapons in the 1840s, supplied half of the 2,300 cannons made by southern foundries during the Civil War. Robert E. Lee considered Tredegar cannons more reliable than many other southern cannons and recommended that some of them be melted down for scrap to be recast by Tredegar. When the war began, the only other southern cannon foundry was the Bellona Foundry in Chesterfield County. Tredegar's iron supply came largely from Cloverdale Furnace in Botetourt County. The machinery at both foundries ran on steam power generated by burning coal and lumber. Consequently, coal and iron mining and timber cutting were prevalent through-out Virginia during the war. Richmond's Virginia Manufactory of Arms, which had only repaired but not produced weapons since 1821, was revived with machinery taken at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal, enabling it to manufacture rifled muskets rather than old-fashioned smooth-bore shoulder arms. According to Chief of Ordnance Josiah Gorgas, the Virginian Manufactory of Arms produced approximately 323,000 infantry arms and 34,000 cavalry arms, although these figures include some privately manufactured and even captured pieces that were sent to the armory to be distributed with its own output.
11. VHSARM_101222_040.JPG: TW Cofer revolver second model , .36 caliber, invented and patented by a Portsmouth gunsmith who made about fifty of them before the fall of Norfolk and Portsmouth in May 1862.
12. VHSARM_101222_044.JPG: (Top) Virginia Manufactory pistol, .69 caliber, altered from flintlock to percussion. (Bottom) Sutherland derringer, .45 caliber, sold by Samuel Sutherland, known as the "armorer of the Confederacy".
13. VHSARM_101222_048.JPG: Slave and free African-American labor was critical to the Confederacy's effort to industrialize. Historians estimate that ninety percent of military-age white males served either in Confederate armies or in state and local homeguards. This could never have occurred without the employment of African-American labor on the farms and factories. Virginia and Georgia iron mills, coal fields, and nitrate works were especially dependent upon African-American labor. At the outbreak of war, ninety percent of Virginia's coal miners were African-Americans. Many business records were destroyed during the war, or afterwards, but we do know that Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond employed 1,200 African-Americans -- roughly half of its work-force. Free blacks worked for wages while planters were paid for slaves they leased to government or private production plants. Black labor was in such high demand that the salaries of free blacks in the various Richmond works increased substantially.
14. VHSARM_101222_061.JPG: First Virginia Regiment crossbeltplate
15. VHSARM_101222_064.JPG: Virginia beltplate
16. VHSARM_101222_070.JPG: Tennessee: Arms manufacturing in Tennessee was principally by private firms such as the Nashville Plow Works, Memphis Novelty Works, and TM Brennan foundry. The fall of Nashville and Memphis early in 1862 closed these plants. The Tennessee Armory at Nashville repaired arms and converted sporting guns to military pieces and was preparing to produce a breech-loading arm when it received the needed machinery. The threat of approaching Union troops diverted its whole operation to Atlanta, Georgia. The capture of much of Tennessee in 1862 endangered the vital supply line that Tennessee's railroads provided between Virginia and the southwestern states. Ironically, much of that part of Tennessee that remained under Confederate control was pro-Union and contributed little to the war effort.
17. VHSARM_101222_075.JPG: North Carolina: When North Carolina seized the Fayetteville armory, it acquired not only 20,000 rifles but also steam-powered machinery for repairing weapons. The Fayetteville Observer of 21 November 1861 reported on the expansion of the facility: "There is a never-ending train of wagons with brick and other material, sawing machines, planing, morticing, dovetailing, turning, and machines of that ilk ad infinitum buzz and whiz and spit off their white flakes, while everywhere forges glow and trip-hammers let fall into their ponderous masses." Captain WW Pierce, reporting to Governor Clark on his quest for rifles, wrote of the rifle works of Asheville in November 1861 that flooding had destroyed "500 Rifle Bris completed and wanting only lock and stock" and that "The work they do is well done but their scale of prices is much higher than in the East."
18. VHSARM_101222_078.JPG: Buttons: The majority of buttons used by the Confederacy were manufactured either by foreign or northern firms.
19. VHSARM_101222_082.JPG: J & F Garrett & Co. single-shot pistol made from US Model 1842 Harpers Ferry parts either at Fayetteville or Greensboro.
20. VHSARM_101222_086.JPG: 2. The Lower South: When war broke out, the states of the Lower South generally had fewer places of manufacture than did Virginia or Tennessee, but as Union armies overran much of Tennessee and Louisiana in 1862, industries such as the Memphis Novelty Works moved to Mississippi and Cook & Brother of New Orleans was re-established in Georgia. As Mississippi and Alabama came under attack, Confederate arms production increasingly was concentrated in Georgia. It ranked second in the Confederacy in railroad mileage and its lines, with their linkages to Tennessee and Virginia, were essential in distributing war materiel to Confederate forces. Alabama: Alabama had a number of private arms manufacturers such as Davis and Bozeman of Coosa County and Shakanoosa Arms Company of Dickson. The Selma Naval Gun Factory, begun with machinery captured at the Mount Vernon Arsenal, was private until taken over by the Confederate army and navy in 1863. Josiah Gorgas later said that if the war had gone on longer, or if the South had won, Selma might have become the Pittsburgh of the South. As evidence, during 1864 Alabama produced four times more iron than any pre-war state had, north or south. The Montgomery Arsenal altered flintlock weapons to percussion, repaired small arms, and manufactured leather goods. In 1864, the Confederate Carbine Factory was moved from the Richmond Arsenal to the Tallassee Armory, which was supposed to issue a muzzleloaded percussion carbine that would be the official Confederate carbine. About 500 were made, but none ever was issued.
21. VHSARM_101222_090.JPG: Alabama Volunteer Corps
22. VHSARM_101222_097.JPG: (Top) A package of friction primers made at the Selma Arsenal in 1864 for cannon. (Left) Confederate James shot that was taken from a Confederate States ordnance train between Gettysburg and Hagerstown in 1863.
23. VHSARM_101222_100.JPG: Georgia: As Union armies invaded Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, increasingly Georgia seemed to be the best place to consolidate Confederate arms production. The Augusta Powder Works became the largest gunpowder maker in North America. The Confederate States Central Laboratory for ammunition was established at Macon. Three of the four cannon foundries operated by the Confederate government were placed in Georgia -- at Augusta, Macon, and Columbus. An important figure in Georgia's arms production was Colonel George Washington H Rains, an engineer with a background in chemistry and geology. He chose to place the powder works at Augusta, and while he supervised the Augusta Arsenal a reporter wrote, "Col. Rains seems to have been successful in security, from the apparently limited number of artisans in the South, men in every department equal to the duties required."
24. VHSARM_101222_108.JPG: Griswold and Gunnison revolver, second model, .36 caliber, a late model with an octagonal barrel housing, produced by twenty-four men, twenty-two of them African Americans.
25. VHSARM_101222_110.JPG: In Georgia, as in Virginia, there was intense competition between private and government concerns for black labor, and the number of blacks, both slave and free, employed in manufacturing enterprises grew steadily. The Augusta Powder Works employed thirty-three blacks during the last six months of 1863, thirty-seven percent of its work force. During 1864, sixty-three blacks or fifty-three percent of its workers were black; by 1865, fifty-nine percent were black. Among private establishments, Louis and Elias Haiman hired forty-three blacks at their Columbia Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in 1862. During the next two years, they advertised widely to hire an additional fifty to seventy black laborers. The hiring of black workers, be they slave or free, usually led to the separation of families. Housing was overcrowded, and daily rations consisted of bacon and cornmeal. Although conditions for black workers were poor and the hours long, the experience was revolutionary for slaves hired to work in factories. They learned skills that served them well later, and they experienced freedom to an unprecedented degree.
26. VHSARM_101222_119.JPG: Louisiana & Mississippi: When Rear Admiral David Farragut's Union fleet passed the forts protecting New Orleans in April 1862, Leeds & Company, the largest cannon foundry there, was denied permission to evacuate its machinery on the grounds that it would spread panic. Confederate ordnance official JW Mallett called the subsequent loss of Leeds "one of the sorest [sic] consequences of the fall of the city." Other firms did manage to leave. Cook & Brother relocated to Athens, Georgia, but most small firms simply ceased operations. When Mississippi seceded, Jones, McElwaine & Company converted its foundry to arms production and was among the first firms to receive a Confederate government contract. Mississippi bought the plant in 1862 and operated it as the Holly Springs Armory, which produced weapons of inferior quality for a few months before its evacuation in November 1862. With the arrival of Union troops, most arms production in Mississippi ceased. For example, Leech & Ridgon, which had relocated from Memphis, Tennessee to Columbus< Mississippi, had to move again, this time to Greensboro, Georgia, early in 1863.
27. VHSARM_101222_132.JPG: South Carolina: In December 1860, South Carolina seceded and seized the federal arsenal at Charleston, which soon afterward was transferred to the Confederate government. At the height of its production, between March and November 1863, it produced 16,000 artillery projectiles and more than 3,000,000 small arm cartridges and repaired 10,000 small arms. South Carolina had threatened to secede in 1850 and, following that crisis, contracted with William Glaze of Charleston and his partner to convert their Palmetto Iron Works to a factory producing small arms. The transformation was completed by 1853, and the firm was called the Palmetto Armory. From 1861 to 1865, it also produced bombshell, cannonballs, minie balls, and rollers for powder mills. There were other, smaller manufacturers of arms, such as swordmakers Kraft, Goldschmidt & Kraft of Columbia. During the course of the conflict, several firms moved to South Carolina, including George W. Morse, a small arms producer who brought his machinery from Nashville, Tennessee, to Greenville.
28. VHSARM_101222_140.JPG: Arkansas & Texas: After secession, the federal arsenal at Little Rock was seized, but not until 1862 did it undertake substantial repair of weapons and production of ammunition. Most of the arsenal's equipment was sent to the Arkadelphia Ordnance Works, which also repaired arms, although a few rifles of inferior quality were made there. The Camden Ordnance Depot also repaired arms and was used for storage. Late in 1863, the machinery from Little Rock, Arkadelphia, and Camden was moved to Texas, mainly to the Tyler Ordnance Works, but some was sent to the Marshall Arsenal. Little is known of the Marshall Arsenal except that it concentrated on pistol production. The Tyler Armory of Short, Biscoe & Company was purchased by the Confederate government late in 1863, and it produced almost everything related to ordnance except cannons, revolvers, and swords. Although many rifles were made there, often from discarded gun barrels, few examples survive. Among private manufacturers in Texas was Dance & Brother of Columbia. Mostly it made .36 and .44 caliber revolvers, but few of them saw service outside Texas.
29. VHSARM_101222_142.JPG: Tyler Ordnance Works Enfield lockplate made in 1865 for a .57 caliber rifle.
30. VHSARM_101222_145.JPG: Texas officer's belt buckle
31. VHSARM_101222_155.JPG: Virginia State Armory: By 1821, the Manufactory seemed expensive and unnecessary. The militia had been armed, and in 1820 the Federal armories began to supply the states. The legislature decided that weapon production would cease at the end of 1821. Sections of the Manufactory were occupied as an arsenal and barracks, but much of the facility fell into disuse. By the end of the 1850s, sectional conflict loomed. John Brown's raid of October 1859, because it was aimed at the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, called attention to the importance of weapon facilities. In January 1860, Virginia approved funds to reopen the Manufactory as the Virginia State Armory. The nearby Tredegar Iron Works was contracted to refit the factory. Before much was done, war broke out in April 1861. On 18 April, Virginia militia under Captain Turner Ashby occupied Harpers Ferry. They suppressed fires set by the departing federal garrison and took possession of the armory's Model 1855 rifle and rifle musket machinery. From April to June 1861, the machinery and large stores of parts were moved to Richmond. Another portion went to Fayetteville, NC. C.S. Armory, Richmond: In July 1861, Virginia transferred the Virginia State Armory to the Confederate government and it was designated as the Confederate States Armory, Richmond. In October 1861, the first lot of rifle muskets was produced using Harpers Ferry machinery and parts. For the rest of the war, the Armory was a component of the Richmond Confederate weapons complex -- down the hill from the Armory was the Richmond Arsenal; on nearby Brown's Island was the laboratory for small arms ammunition; and adjacent to the west were the Armory Rolling Mill and Tredegar Iron Works. One estimate is that the C.S. Armory, Richmond manufactured about 36,000 rifle muskets, rifle carbines, and short rifles, and repaired about 24,000 others. The Armory was consumed in the evacuation fire of 3 April 1865. Some of the brick ruins stood for decades. The western half of the center section was rebuilt in 1866 and served as a barracks until 1869. Thereafter, the building was unoccupied and finally razed about 1900. Today, South Fifth Street below Canal Street passes over the site of the Virginia Manufactory. Visible from Fifth Street to the west is the old canal retaining wall, including a late nineteenth-century headgate located at the outlet for the mill-race that served the west wing of the Manufactory.
32. VHSARM_101222_162.JPG: The Virginia Manufactory of Arms: In his final address to Congress in 1796, President George Washington called for the creation of public armories, warning that the new republic should not be "dependent on foreign supply" for arms and ammunition. He was wary of "interference with pursuits of individual industry" but doubted that private enterprise alone would meet the need. "Strong considerations of national policy," he argued, required the investment of public funds. The anti-Federalists who controlled Virginia politics agreed with Washington's assessment but preferred armories to be a function of state, not national government. Soon after the presidential address, Virginia's General Assembly asked the governor to find an appropriate location in Richmond for "an arsenal and manufactory of arms."
33. VHSARM_101222_163.JPG: Plans: Requested by Governor James Wood to recommend a site, Powhattan County millright John Clarke suggested a six-acre tract between the James River Canal and the river, well-suited both for delivery of raw materials and for waterpower to drive the armory's machinery. When the legislature authorized a manufactory of arms in 1798, Clarke was entrusted to draw up plans. He visited other American armories, especially the federal armory in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he studied factory layout, bookkeeping, and testing methods. His resulting plans called for a workforce of 150 with daily production of sixteen muskets, six pistols, and seven swords. In 1801, Clarke made a second trip to the north to recruit skilled gunsmiths. By year's end, he reported to Governor James Monroe that the manufactory would soon commence operations.
34. VHSARM_101222_166.JPG: The Militia: County militia units, consisting of armed citizens rather than professional soldiers, were established in Virginia in the early 1600s. They were a mainstay of the patriot cause in the American Revolution. The Second Amendment of the US Constitution, drafted in 1791, declared "a well regulated militia" to be "necessary to the security of a free state." In a nation born out of resistance to taxation, however, appeals for quality arms for the militia often fell on deaf ears. Anti-Federalist Virginians, in particular, favored small and cheap government. It took foreign threats from Britain and France in the 1790s to modify these attitudes. Nonetheless, certain problems with the militia were chronic. Officers were regularly chosen for their social standing or popularity rather than military competence, and the troops often would not muster at all unless induced by free liquor, which then spoiled their drills.
35. VHSARM_101222_180.JPG: Operations: In March 1802, one wing of the Virginia Manufactory of Arms began production. Most of the gunsmiths came from the northeast, and many of the tools were obtained in Birmingham, England. The design of the First Model musket was based on the US Armory Model 1795. The initial guns were completed in October 1802, and by year's end 336 muskets with bayonets had been made. In 1803, the first full year of operation, 2,032 muskets were made. By the end of 1804, eighty-seven persons, skilled and unskilled, were employed. John Clarke, who had planned and built the Manufactory, was appointed superintendent. He described it in 1806 as "the best and most economical means of procuring arms." It produced "a quality greatly superior" to arms purchased elsewhere, with the advantage that the arms "are manufactured with uniformity in all their parts," yet at a lower cost per unit. Moreover, "the money paid for Arming our Militia is kept in circulation among our citizens, and tends to encourage their skills and industry." Clarke added that "an art is diffused not only advantageous to our youth, but important to the protection of our country's rights." From 1802 to 1821, the Manufactory produced some 58,000 muskets, nearly 3,000 per year. Although muskets were the bulk of the output, the Manufactory also produced 18,000 other weapons. The Manufactory made cannon, too, but not in large quantity. The foundry and boring mill for large ordnance were completed in 1809 and active until 1813. In that period, 235 iron cannon were produced.
36. VHSARM_101222_184.JPG: Manufacturing: John Clarke based the Virginia Manufactory system primarily on that of Springfield Armory, which divided musket production into about forty different steps. His plan put a larger number of gunsmiths working at the more time-consuming tasks so the process could move at an even pace. Based on his background as a millright, Clarke designed a modern factory that utilized water-powered machinery whenever applicable. Mill technology was one of the first fields in which American innovation made a mark. Energy from the fall of water was captured by a wheel and distributed by means of gears, drive-shafts, fly-wheels, and belts to run a series of machines in the fabrication process. At the Manufactory, head-gates at the James River Canal fed mill-races that filled basins and turned waterwheels. The wheels powered trip-hammer forges, boring and drilling machines, grinders, and polishers, and probably also fans, pumps, saws, and lathes. The two wings were powered separately, each utilizing three waterwheels, two of 16-foot diameter and one of 12-foot diameter in two falls. A third fall drove the waterwheels for the cannon operation in a separate mill on the lower side of the property. A gun barrel was made from iron that was forged, a process of heating and hammering that both formed and strengthened the metal. Clarke reported that it required "thirteen distinct operations" to make a gun barrel: "Forging a scalp for the barrel [in which the iron was hammered into a long plate], welding barrel [shaping the scalp around a rod, and closing the seam to make a cylinder], annealing [strengthening the metal by heating and cooling, i.e. tempering], rough-boring [with care to avoid warping from heat], smooth-boring, grinding, forging a breech [ a cap for the hind end of the barrel], breeching, making a touchhole [for the spark from the flint to ignite the charge], proving [firing a test with charge and shot], looping, sighting, and polishing." A gun-lock was assembled from pieces made by forging, filing, stamping, hardening, and polishing. The gunstock was made of seasoned wood, first shaped to its outer dimensions and then cut with precise slots and cavities for the lock and trigger mechanisms. Nothing was off-the-shelf: every screw was forged, filed, and cut.
37. VHSARM_101222_186.JPG: Controversy and Change: In 1807, complaints from militia units about defective weapons led to investigations at the Manufactory. After manufacture, musket barrels were "proved" to assure their quality by firing tests with specified loads of gunpowder and shot. The doubts about Manufactory muskets led to new tests of weapons previously issued. The reproving tests had mixed results. They seemed to show a high rate of failure for muskets made in 1804, but the extent of the deficiencies was a subject of debate. The dispute brought criticism of the superintendent's performance. Although John Clarke was reappointed by the General Assembly in January 1808, a newspaper's campaign against him expanded into financial allegations, and eventually the clamor led to new investigations. When the case took a political turn, Clarke was forced out in January 1809. A few years later, in 1816, Clarke established the Bellona Foundry for cannon in Chesterfield County. For Bellona, he probably purchased the large ordnance machinery no longer used at the Manufactory. James Staples, a supervisor at the Manufactory, succeeded Clarke. Staples served as superintendent until the closing of the armory in 1821. Under Staples, modifications were made to musket design beginning in 1809, based partly on new US models of 1808 and 1812. After several years of transitional muskets, the Second Model musket was produced 1812-21. The Manufactory brought out a Second Model pistol in 1812.
38. VHSARM_101222_190.JPG: The War of 1812 in 1813: Virginia Manufactory arms played their most consequential role during the War of 1812. When the United States declared war on Great Britain in June 1812, it had relatively few naval ships and only a small standing army. State militias were expected to supply soldiers and to defend against threats to coastal areas. Units from Virginia served in Ohio under General William Henry Harrison, but the Virginia militia was primarily stationed in the Chesapeake Bay theater. A British naval squadron tool control of the entrance to the bay in February 1813. Virginia forces assembled to protect lower Tidewater areas, especially Norfolk and Portsmouth. The American strongpoints were Fort Norfolk and Craney Island. A British attempt on Norfolk in March 1813 failed. In June 1813, a stronger attack on Norfolk was repulsed by American army, navy, and militia forces in the battle of Craney Island but days later the British drove off militia defending Hampton and sacked it. Over the summer, British forces conducted raids at many places. In late June and early July, they struck near Jamestown and in Isle of Wight. Later, from a base on Maryland's Kent Island, they made incursions into Westmoreland County. Their stealthy forays were often launched too quickly for local militia to be gathered for effective response. In September 1813, British forces withdrew from the Chesapeake, leaving only a small squadron on blockade. The War of 1812 in 1814: In spring 1814, the British returned, establishing a base at Tangier Island . From May through July, numerous Virginia and Maryland places were raided, including Accomac on the Eastern Shore and Westmoreland County along the Potomac. On 3 August, a major incursion up the Yeocomico River burned Kinsale and attacked Northumberland Court House but met stuff militia resistance. In August, new British troops arrived and proceeded to Maryland's Patuxent River. On 19 August, 4,000 soldiers landed and moved on Washington. Among the capital's defenders were Fairfax County militiamen. On 24 August, in a defeat described by the battle-name "Bladensburg Runs," American forces were routed. British forces marched into Washington and burned the Capitol and White House. On 29 August, Alexandria surrendered without firing a shot. The British next turned to Baltimore. Joining Maryland and US units was a substantial contingent of Virginia militia, which held the left side of the line for the successful American resistance at the battle of North Point on 12 September. After the ineffective if spectacular bombardment of Fort McHenry on 13-14 September, British forces withdrew. The main part left the Chesapeake in October, but an element remained on Tangier Island. Raids continued on the Potomac at Nomini Bay and on the Rappahannock at Tappahannock and North Farnham Church. Word that a peace treaty had been signed on 24 December 1814 reached President James Madison in blackened Washington on 14 February 1815.
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