Existing comment:
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. |