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Page 18 text:
“
. J ORESHADOWING World War I, activity in- creased rapidly. Colonel J. Walker Benet was 1 U commander and had the heavy responsibility of expanding the arsenal to serve the troops. He set up new departments, trained additional per- sonnel, and leased land on the Georgia Railroad where warehouses were built. It was during this period that Stephen Vincent Benet, who later became famous, was writing prose and poetry in the house now occupied by the president of Augusta College. Following World War I, and during the great de- pression hundreds of unemployed persons were given work assignments at the arsenal through the Works Progress Administration. Buildings were painted, roads repaired and paved, grounds dug up, graded and replanted. When the dark clouds of World War II began to gather, new buildings mushroomed. Approximately fifty were erected, bringing the total to 101 buildings valued at $100,000,000.00 Thousands of persons were trained, civilian and military, in new occupa- tions. At the peak of the war there were 2152 civilians employed and the arsenal was operating on a 24- hour, daily, 3-shift basis. Material was shipped abroad under lease-lend agreements. The arsenal ' s mission included main- tenance, overhaul, manufacture and storage of ordinance. The optical and fire-control section re- paired intricately-wired director systems similar to present day computers. It occupied an entire four- story building and the upper floor of another large brick building. Coating of optics to reduce reflection and intensify light transmission, which was a new and interesting development in science, was accom- plished here. After more than a century and a half of continuous service, the arsenal finally bowed to the advancing age of space. Once considered a large arsenal, in 1955 it was considered too small to be of effectual use to the United States, and it was closed. Even be- fore the government-owned property was removed from buildings, influential citizens of Augusta were taking steps to acquire the site and buildings for Augusta College. They were successful; the college occupied the site in 1957.
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Page 17 text:
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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.
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