Existing comment:
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. |