Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series

Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be 
reproduced without permission. 
Transcribed by Barbara Kawamoto.

                        The Burning of the Arsenal

"Our Heritage"
By Claude Moore

   The old United States Arsenal on Haymount in Fayetteville, built by an 
Act of Congress passed in 1836 and according to the late Mrs. John Huske 
Anderson of Fayetteville, was "the pride and beauty spot of Fayetteville, 
being one of the loveliest places anywhere in the south."

   Construction actually got under way in 1838.  There were about 20 
buildings in good military architectural style surrounded by a brick wall 
with octagonal towers on all four corners of the enclosure.  The walls had 
heavy iron railings and iron gates.  William Bell of Scotland was the
architect and remained there during the War Between the States.

   The bricks were made of local clay and burned in kilns nearby and the 
stone used was quarried from the area.  Several two-story buildings stood 
near the outer wall, which served as quarters for the officers and troops, 
and the buildings in the center were used for storing of small arms,
ammunitions, quartermaster and commissionary supplies.  Also in the center 
enclosure were the gun carriage and machine shops.  In the rear was the 
rifle factory, which later contained the rifle making machinery, which was 
moved there by the Confederates after they captured the arsenal at Harper’s
Ferry.  The Arsenal became the depository for arms for distribution to other
southern states.

   After the John Brown Raid on the Harper’s Ferry Arsenal in 1859, the War 
Department garrisoned the Fayetteville Arsenal with a company of regular 
troops.  In 1861, the post was under the command of Major J. A. J. Bradford 
of the ordnances services.  The troops were under the command of Major S.S. 
Anderson and Lt. J. A. DeLagnel.

   After the Battle at Fort Sumter and President Lincoln called for troops 
to invade the states, which then made up the Confederate States of America, 
Governor John W. Ellis requested that a peaceable surrender of the 
Fayetteville Arsenal be arranged.  General Walker Draughon, the Commander 
of the North Carolina Militia gathered up his forces of cavalry and infantry,
including the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry and marched to the 
Arsenal gates.  Lt. DeLagnel realizing that resistance would be fruitless 
surrendered the Arsenal without firing a gun and took the occupying officers
on a tour of the building.

   The Arsenal was turned over to the Confederate government on June 5, 1861.
The shops were in ship shape and there was stored, ready to use, 37,000 
stands of arms, as well as gunpowder and ammunition.  There were 12,000 
muskets shipped immediately to Virginia.  Within a short time, the Arsenal 
was turning out about 500 rifles per month as well as building gun carriages
for artillery.  Lt. DeLagnel later joined the Confederate Army.

   The Confederates built a number of frame buildings to take care of the 
expansion.  Several new workshops were built since they began to manufacture
nearly everything known to ordnance. Iron was brought from the foundries in 
South Carolina.  Many experienced mechanics were brought from Harper’s Ferry.
Pine and oak came from New Hanover County, and coal from the Deep River Mines
near Sanford.  The late Captain S. A. Ashe was for a time the assistant to 
the Commander of the Arsenal and we rely on his writings for facts about 
the operation of the post.

   After General Sherman reached Columbia, S.C., and burned the city, the 
Confederate authorities felt sure that Fayetteville would be on his route.  
Much of the machinery at the Arsenal was loaded on train and transported to 
the Egypt Coal Mines near Sanford, and some carried by wagons to Greensboro.

   General Sherman arrived in Fayetteville on March 11, 1865.  He immediately
ordered the cotton mills, saw mills, gristmills and paper mills to be burned.
He found nothing of value for his army at the Arsenal, but he ordered every 
building burned.  His troops used railroad rails to batter down the hulls of
the buildings and the walls.  The burning of the Arsenal was one of the last
tragedies of the War Between the States.

   In 1928, the North Carolina Historical Commission and the J. E. B. Stuart
Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a marker at the 
Arsenal site.  In recent years, a new highway came through the site and took
away most of the ruins.

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Barbara Kawamoto <bakawamoto.earthlink.net>

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