Harpers Ferry Armory: Difference between revisions

The '''Harpers Ferry Armory''', more formally known as the '''United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry''', was the second federal armory created by the United States government.; (Thethe first was the [[Springfield Armory]].) It was located in [[Harpers Ferry]], [[West Virginia|Harpers Ferry, Virginia]], which (since 1863, has been part of [[West Virginia]]). It was both an [[arsenal]], manufacturing firearms, and an armory, a storehouse for firearms. Along with the Springfield Armory, it was instrumental in the development of [[machining]] techniques to make [[interchangeable parts]] of precisely the same dimensions.<ref>{{Hounshell1984}}</ref>

The Armory was a long, narrow complex of buildings, located alongside the [[Baltimore &and Ohio Railroad]] line on a strip of land alongside the [[Potomac River]]. The entrance was close to the center of town, with its train station and hotels, and the bridge, the [[B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing]]. At its peak, just before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the Armory had 400 employees.<ref>{{cite book

|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hafe/armory_clr.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|185}}

During the [[American Civil War]], the Armory was destroyed and its equipment removed; it was not rebuilt. The only surviving building is its former fire engine house, known today as [[John Brown's Fort]]. As of 2021, it is not in its original location.

In 1794, the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed a [[Bill (proposed law)|bill]] calling "''for the erecting and repairing of Arsenals and Magazines''". President [[George Washington]], given wide latitude in carrying out this order, selected Harpers Ferry, then a part of [[Virginia]], for the location of the Harpers Ferry National Armory.<ref name="nps1">{{cite web |title=Harpers Ferry Armory and Arsenal |url=httphttps://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/harpers-ferry-armory-and-arsenal.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315041124/https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/harpers-ferry-armory-and-arsenal.htm |titlearchive-date=HarpersMarch Ferry15, NHP2024 Armory|access-date=14 andMarch Arsenal2024 |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |website=Harpers Ferry National Historical Park |first=Marsha}}</ref> |last=WasselGeorge |date=JuneWashington believed that an inland location would be more defensible against foreign military attack. 2However, 2005his |access-date=Novemberfriends 12had an interest in the [[Potomac Company]], 2008which |archive-date=Novemberinfluenced 8his decision to locate the armory.<ref>Simon, 2008R. |archive-url=https://webD.archive (2010).org/web/20081108160124/http "The Machine in Context://www Merritt Roe Smith’s Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology: The Challenge of Change".nps ''Technology and Culture'', 51(4), 1010–1017.gov/archive/hafe/armory.htm {{jstor|url-status=live 40928038}}.</ref> In 1796, the United States government purchased a {{convert|125|acre|km2|adj=on}} parcel of land from the heirs of Robert Harper. Subsequently, in 1799, construction began on the national armory. Three years later, mass production of military arms commenced.<ref name="nps1"/>

Close to the beginning of the war on April 18, 1861, just a day after Virginia's conventional ratification of secession, Union soldiers, outnumbered and deprived of reinforcements, set fire to their own armory in an attempt to thwart the usage of it by an advancing Virginian Confederate militia numbering 360 men in all. Harpers Ferry residents (many of whom made their living off the armory) were able to put out the fires swiftly enough to save most of the armory's weapon-making machinery. After rescuing the equipment from the fire, the Confederates stole the equipment and shipped it south by rail to [[Winchester, Virginia]], and from there to Richmond, asand Virginiause hadthe decidedmachinery to reopenin the newly reopened, Confederate central government-run [[Richmond Armory]].<ref>{{cite web

}}</ref> The South had virtually no small-arms production and an inadequate supply of raw materials. The machinery taken from Harpers Ferry became the foundation of the Confederate arms manufacturing.{{cn|date=September 2023}} Two weeks later, the Confederates abandoned Harpers Ferry, while also confiscating what was left in the Armory and burning the rest of the remaining buildings.<ref name=":1nps1"/>{{Cite webThey also blew up the railroad bridge of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]], but returned in two weeks to destroy the Rifle Works and a bridge that crossed the Shenandoah river.<ref name=":0" />

Due to the degree of damage to the armory during the Civil War, the U.S. government decided not to re-establish the armory at Harpers Ferry, instead focusing the quickly developing areas west of the Mississippi River.<ref name{{cn|date=":1"September />2023}}

[[John Brown's Fort]] was the only building to survive the destruction wrought upon it by the Confederates and the Union forces. It was the armory's fire engine and guard house,<ref name="nps1"/> which [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry#Monday, October 17|Brown and his raiders barricaded themselves in]]. It was given after the war the name of John Brown's Fort after the war.

{{commons|Harpers Ferry Armory}}

[[Category:FirearmDefunct firearms manufacturers of the United States]]