Harpers Ferry national armory

[Watauga]

US Model 1805 flintlock pistol, dated 1807, and made at Harpers Ferry, VA (now WV). Springfield, MA gets all the recognition, but West Virginia had our nation's second oldest national armory, and it produced this pistol, our nation's first military handgun produced by a national armory. Around 4,000 were made, all in a one room building with only 25 employees, and using river power to turn the equipment.
These were made in pairs, each with matching serial numbers. So they end at 2,048. The pistol was a .54 caliber, single-shot, smoothbore, flintlock pistol intended for field duty and was issued as an Officer's pistol. Harper's Ferry model 1805–1808 flintlock pistols were known then as "horsemen's pistols" and were produced in pairs; both pistols having identical serial numbers. With just one shot readily available without reloading, a "brace" was the standard issue (a pair of two flintlock pistols were known as a "brace"). Horse accouterments also included a standard pair of saddle holsters.
Harper's Ferry models 1805, 1806, 1807 and 1808 flintlock pistols were all identical and there were no changes in design during this model year sequence.
In 1794, the United States Congress passed a 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.[5] In 1796, the United States government purchased a 125-acre (0.51 km2) 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.[5]
The national armory at Harpers Ferry was actually the second national armory. The first was the Springfield Armory, constructed in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1794 after Congress approved the bill to create the nation's first national armory.
Upon its grand opening, the armory's size seemed inadequate for a work force. It consisted of only one room, and the workers numbered a mere twenty-five. Nevertheless, the armory produced many muskets, rifles, and later pistols for the United States. Between 1821 - 1830 the armory produced 11,855 arms. Each decade after that, production declined.[6] The building relied on river power to drive the armory's machinery.
Renovation and modernization:
In 1844, the deficient state of the armory was taken into account and demand for military equipment increased, and so the renovation and expansion of the armory was undertaken. The upgrades of the arsenal began in 1845-1854 with the construction of seven brand new workshops and the installation of 121 new machines.[5] The new workshops had a brick superstructure with iron framing and slanted sheet metal roofing. These reconstructed arsenal buildings became collectively known as the "U.S. Musket Factory".[5] The armory canal was enlarged so that more water could get to the armory, which meant it would receive more power. Along with the enlargement of the canal, seven new water turbines were installed. The upgrades formed a well-integrated functional unit that improved the flow of work from one stage of production to the next.[7] All the expansions of the armory were done on heavy stone foundations and included cast-iron framing in the general style of "factory Gothic" architecture.[7]
In addition, more people were employed to work at the armory than before: the labor force increased from a minuscule twenty-five in 1802 to about four hundred workers in 1859.[5] Furthermore, the working conditions improved, but only slightly.
John Brown:
In 1859, the armory became the site of the famous seizure by abolitionist John Brown, which, while unsuccessful in inciting a slave revolt, helped precipitate the American Civil War and the eventual emancipation of slaves in the United States.
Civil War:
While Virginia was still in the union, the armory regularly shipped manufactured weapons and material throughout the United States. However, once the Civil War began, the national armory became a vital control point for both the Confederates and the Union.
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, the Confederates shipped it south by rail to Winchester, Virginia. 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.[8] Two weeks later, the Confederates abandoned Harpers Ferry. The Southern forces confiscated what was left in the armory and burned the rest of the remaining armory buildings.[5] They 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.[7]
The armory's strategic location
During the Civil War, the armory became a site of great strategic importance because it was located very close to the Mason-Dixon line, or the border between the free and the slave-holding states. Consequently, the Union used it as an effective means to supply troops with weapons quickly as they marched into battle. The downside to being on the border was that the armory could easily change hands and fall into Confederate control - the town of Harpers Ferry changed hands at least eleven times during the Civil War.[7]
Reconstruction Era:
After the Civil War, John Brown's Fort was the only building to survive the destruction wrought upon it by the Confederates and the Union. The building was named after John Brown for his notorious raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1859. The building was the armory's fire engine and guard house.[5] 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.[8]
Today the site is mostly covered by railroad track embankments.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry_Armory
Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms...and their Values, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2007. 9th edition.