Augusta College - White Columns Yearbook (Augusta, GA)

Page 15 text:

«( v mR.rtv

Page 17 text:

0URING the Civil War period, the arsenal man- ufactured (among other items): 174 gun car- riages; 115 caissons; 343 limbers; 110 guns (mostly bronze 12-pounder); 21 battery wag- ons; 10,575 powder boxes (for gun-powder, of course!); 73,521 horse shoes; 3455 saddles; 2535 sets of harness; 2477 signal rockets; 85,800 rounds of fixed ammunition; 136,642 cartridge bags (women made these); 200,113 time fuses; 476,207 pounds of projectiles; 4,580,000 buck shot; 4,626,000 lead balls; and 10,760,000 cartridges for small arms. When the war ended, the arsenal was surrendered by the Confederates to Brigadier General Emery Upton, U.S. Army, after which United States Army troops again occupied the arsenal. Colonel D. W. Flagler, of the Ordnance Department, was ordered to command, it was he who designed the famous sundial, a replica of which now stands in the garden to the rear of the Headquarters building. The records do not show any exciting activity at the arsenal during the period of Reconstruction. A double brick cottage was built for married enlisted men in 1872 and several other buildings still stand- ing. The old arsenal site and the powder works were given by the Government to the Freedmen ' s Bureau but later sold by them to the City of Augusta for approximately $42,000.00. Although in 1874 the commanding officer of the arsenal. Captain R. M. Hill, reported that the value of the arsenal ' s land and buildings was approxi- mately $305,200.00; that Augusta, with a popula- tion of 20,000, was considered by Washington officials to be an excellent location for an arsenal, it was just a few years later that Congress, in discussing appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, inserted a clause in the appropriation bill for sundry civil expenses, to sell Augusta Arsenal. This was agreed to by the House, but the Senate refused to assent, so the bill failed to become a law and the arsenal remained a storage and repair point for ordnance equipment. At the turn of the twentieth century the arsenal became quite active. In addition to repair and stor- age, it manufactured large quantities of cavalry equipment and seacoast targets and served the en- tire South Atlantic District.