The Mechanical and Industrial Resources of Richmond - Tredegar Iron Works

USS ALASKA

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From the Richmond Enquirer, 10/1/1861, p. 4, c. 3

"The Mechanical and Industrial Resources of Richmond.

Under this caption we design giving such occasional statistical information respecting the extent, resources and progress of the industrial interests of our city, as shall demonstrate at a glance the rapidly increasing importance of Richmond as a manufacturing place, and the entire ability of our mechanic, and businessmen generally, to assert with ease and profit their entire independence of Yankee capital, and of Yankee enterprise. As a matter of justice to long-established success, we devote this initial sketch to the Richmond Tredegar Iron Works of Messrs. Joseph R. Anderson & Co., situated at the James River. For a very interesting visit to these extensive works, on Wednesday, and a detailed explanation of its operations, we rest under obligations to the courtesy of Mr. Edward R. Archer, its Assistant Superintendent.

THE TREDEGAR IRON WORKS.

This vast and magnificent establishment, the resources and the important services of which must constitute a prominent chapter in the future history of Southern independence, has long enjoyed a very wide spread and honorable celebrity, not only as the most extensive of its character in America, but on the score also of the superior and admirable quality of the work which has issued from it. Established many years ago, and at a period when the mechanical and industrial inferiority of the businessmen of the South to those of the North, seems to have been generally conceded even by Southern writers, the Tredegar works, under the well directed skill and quiet enterprise of its proprietors, gradually extended its operations, and developed its resources to a degree which brought it into direct competition with the best establishments of a similar class in the North, when its superior excellence in many, if not all the branches of iron manufacture, extorted an unequivocal recognition from the Government of the United States, which awarded to Messrs. Anderson & Co., construction of the engines of the first class steam frigates Roanoke and Colorado, and the manufacture of a very considerable quantity of cannon and ordnance, and projectiles of all kinds.

It was in this latter department the fabrication of cannon that the Tredegar Works, achieved its first popular distinction. So decidedly superior were the ordnance here manufactured found to be, that the fame of the foundry in which they were cast soon became firmly established, and the U. S. government thenceforward, and up to within a short time of the election of Lincoln, entrusted to Messrs. Anderson & Co. the manufacture of the chief portion of the best ordnance required by the war department. An officer of distinction in the old Federal navy, and who had been long engaged in superintending the manufacture and proof of ordnance made for his government, writes of the Tredegar Foundry, that of some 1,200 guns made there, every one of the number successfully withstood the tests to which they were subjected, and adds the safe assertion that they are fully equal to any made in this country or in Europe. In proof of this opinion, the fact may be mentioned here that several of the Tredegar guns have endured, without injury, upwards of 1000 rounds, and in one memorable instance at least, the piece safely withstood the excessive test of 1,800 consecutive firings, to which it was subjected, for the purpose of ascertaining its actual power of endurance. A chief cause of this remarkable excellence of the ordnance made here, is said to exist in the admitted fact that the iron used in their manufacture, and which is principally obtained from the Cloverdale Mine in Botetourt county, Virginia, is the best in the world for that purpose. It is certain, however, that the laudable professional pride and mechanical skill of Messrs. Anderson & Co., have contributed no little to their fame in this respect.

The experience and the facilities which the Tredegar Works have thus been enabled to acquire, would seem to have been the result of a special direction, which the enthusiastic patriot may well be excused for regarding as providential. With the establishment of Messrs. Anderson & Co., and the opportune possession of the Gosport Navy Yard, it is difficult to conceive how the South, relying solely upon human agencies, could have successfully resisted the assaults of a neighboring, powerful, and well-appointed enemy. The importance of these works to the South does not appear to have been underrated by our enemies [remainder of line illegible] of the On to Richmond march, was their destruction and consequent crippling of Southern resources of war.

The number of ordnance, of all calibers, furnished to the South by the Tredegar Works, we have it not in our power now to states; but, taking certain facts within our possession as the data of the estimate, it must reach to hundreds. At present the utmost activity is being displayed in this department, and from six to eight small, and about six large guns, are turned out weekly. The floors of the machine shop are crowded with projectiles of all sizes and shapes, varying in weight from the one hundred pound percussion shell of the rifled Columbiads, to the six-pound shells of the jaunty and symmetrical, but destructive, little rifled Tredegar gun, as it is termed.

The percussion shells, of which a large number are now being used, are provided with Bormauns celebrated graduated fuse, with a safety attachment the invention of Dr. Robert S. Archer, a member of the firm to prevent premature explosions by the careless dropping of the shell. Quite a number of these terrible projectiles are ready packed for transshipment to Charleston, are about 200 shells are each day sent to the laboratory to be filled. The machinery for boring and rifling cannon are of the most improved and powerful description, and are kept constantly employed. During our visit on Wednesday, a monster 10-inch Columbiad weighing about 17,000 pounds and having a range of four miles, was being rifled a process which would occupy about two days. Three of these enormous cannon are cast each week (in the average), and six of them were, during our visit, undergoing the process of boring, preparatory to being rifled. The operation of boring is by far the most tedious of all connected with the manufacture of a gun, occupying from five days to two weeks, according to the quality of the iron or the excellence of the tools used. There are six boring beds, or mills, and a proportionate number of planers, or lathes, for smoothing and finishing the piece after it has been bored. The light Tredegar Gun, and rifled field pieces of ordinary caliber are turned off with great rapidity, and removed to suitable fields of action as soon as finished. Among the guns now being rifled for field service, are some fifty bronze and iron guns of small caliber, belonging to the State of Virginia. There had heretofore been regarded as wholly useless, but will, in their altered forms, become exceedingly effective. The latter pieces will be confided, it is supposed, to the care of the Home Guards throughout the State. A number of formidable looking eight-inch siege howitzers have also been completed, and are now ready for shipment to different points of action. The process of fabricating the le instrument of death, is full of interest to the uninitiated. The guns are cast solidly, and after being reduced of their surplus length, are placed upon the boring beds, and from thence transferred to the turning lathes, where the pieces are then cut down to their proper shape and dimensions, and smoothed or polished.

The establishment is also largely engaged in the manufacture of gun carriages for field batteries and for heavy ordnance. Quite a large number of these, made in the best and most substantial manner, have already been sent away, and others are being almost daily conveyed to the different fields of action. It was in this department that the most difficulty was anticipated in meeting the requirements of our armies; yet here, also, the energy of Messrs. Anderson & Co. has demonstrated the entirely self-sustaining powers and resources of the South, by turning out from their establishment carriages and all the appurtenances of field batteries, which challenge the closest critical comparison with the best work of the Northern manufactories. A traveling forge to accompany the batteries into the field and numbers are being here made after an original design struck us as being one of the most complete, and practically available in all of its arrangements we have yet seen.

Another decided improvement in the mechanism of artillery, which this firm has originated are wrought iron carriages for barbette guns, which have been found to far surpass the cumbrous oaken ones now generally used, both in strength and in the ease with which the heaviest ordnance may be worked upon them, while they fall as far below the latter in weight and its expense of construction. The plan of these carriages was highly approved by the old government, who were about to order them for the more important fortifications, along the coast, when Lincoln went in, and the Union became thenceforward as the baseless fabric of a vision. Several of the improved wrought iron carriages are now under construction and one of them has been already completed for certain Southern forts.

Many of the improvements which have here been originated in the manufacture of cannon, projectiles, &c., may be traced to the practiced skill and the experience of Dr. Robt. S. Archer, one of the firm, who was formerly in the United States Navy for many years, as surgeon, and who has devoted a considerable portion of his life to experimenting in fire-arms, projectiles, &c.

The Tredegar Gun, to which reference has before been made, is of an original design, and upon an entirely new principle. It is a six-pounder iron rifled field piece, furnished with a patent friction primer instead of a percussion hammer, and having a graduated sight, by means of which the gun may be fired with the accuracy of a rifle. It is quite likely the Yankees will soon hear of this busy little artillery hornet in the vicinity of Washington. Extensive additions will shortly be made to the work now in operation, ad which will much facilitate the speedier manufacture of guns of the heaviest caliber.

We have been thus full in our sketch of the military operations of the Tredegar Works, because they exhibit at once their unlimited capacity and the indomitable energy of its proprietors, and because that the entire vast establishment is now wholly devoted to the pressing requirements of the military service of the Confederacy. But while the manufacture of ordnance, & c., exhibit the capacity of the establishment, they by no means afford a just idea of its resources or the variety of its manufactures.

Very few intelligent Southern readers need to be reminded, we imagine, that in the manufacture of locomotives, the Tredegar Works stand second to none on this continent. The fact is amply demonstrated by the popularity of the admirable engines of the Tredegar stamp, upon the Southern roads, and even upon those of Cuba, which are extensively furnished with them we believe. But even the most intelligent Southern ____ may well be surprised at the variety of delicate and complicated machinery and steel ware, manufactured by Messrs. Anderson & Co.; and only by a walk through their establishment the work of hours by the way can a just idea of its actual operations be obtained. The list of manufactures which the Works are capable under ordinary circumstances of turning out, includes, in addition to locomotives and every description of iron work connected with the construction of railroads, sugar and saw-mills &c., planing machines, ship spikes, chains, iron and brass castings, portable and stationary steam engines, machinery for plantation purposes, circular saw plates, carriage axles, and tool and machinery steel of every shape and size. To the manufacture of cast steel especial attention has been given; sine(?) steel furnaces with proper machinery, are employed in this department, and the work turned out is confidently claimed to be fully equal to the best English brands for tenacity, soundness and uniformity of temper.

The amount of machinery, forges, mills, &c., required in the various departments of the Tredegar Works are of course enormous, and would require, in their hurried description even, more technical knowledge than we could summon up, and far more space than the demands of the public will enable us to give. There are in all about fifteen shops, each one of which is employed in a distinct branch of the general manufacturing business of the firm. These comprise: The Rolling Mill, with furnaces for melting and puddling iron, and pondrous machinery for rolling it into the several requisite forms of merchantable iron; Spike Factory, for the manufacture of ship and rail road spikes, about thirty tons of which can be made in the course of one day; Cooper Shop; the Foundry, where all the castings are made: this department is in three divisions, the first of which is devoted to heavy castings, inclusive of gins, & c., the second to rail road, engines, and other ____ machinery and the third to rail ___ there is now being In the 6 ___ casting a peculiar mould, the name and object of which it would not be judicious to disclose, being for Government purposes, which will require about three weeks for its entire casting, and will, when completed, weigh upwards of 17,000 pounds; Car Wheels; Brass Foundery, where the brass castings of locomotives, &c., are made. The First Machine Shop, where carwheels and cannon are bored, turned and rifled; In this shop is an immense Hydralic press for forcing the car wheel on the axle, and which possesses a power of compression equal to two hundred tons; locomotive shop in which locomotives, mills, engines, and the more delicate machinery generally are all made. The armory, designed for the manufacture of rifled muskets, but not in operation; Carpenter shop; Boiler shop; Pattern shop; Cast steel foundry; wheel and Mill-wright shop; and Blacksmith shop. In the latter building, which is 180 feet long, and well supplied with trip hammers for light work, and every requisite appliance, forty forges are kept constantly employed. The Laboratory, where shells and grape shot are filled, and other projectiles prepared, is a separate department called into existence by the exigencies of the times.

There are at present employed in the works about 1,000 men, who, were they called into service, would make a formidable regiment of strong armed defenders; and for such a service they are fully prepared, for, influenced by the warlike tendencies of the times, the men, some time ago, organized from among themselves a full battalion, and elected as their commander, Major Joseph R. Anderson, one of the proprietors. Procuring arms, they, after some weeks passed in industrious drilling, tendered their services to the Government through their commander. The President very judiciously declined the tender, upon the ground that the Tredegar Volunteers could be of infinitely more service to the cause they desired to serve, in the work shops than in the field. Recently Major Anderson has been called to a brigadier generalship in the provisional army of the Confederacy, and the battalion are temporarily without a commander. They preserve, however, their regular organization, and drill with assiduous care once a week. From their ranks a guard is nightly detailed, and the establishment placed under strict military surveillance. The latter precaution has been rendered necessary by the attempts to destroy these all-important works, which have twice been made by Yankee emissaries in our midst, and which attempts were, fortunately for our cause, twice frustrated by the vigilance of some of the employees in the works.

The supply of anthracite coal having been cut off by the blockade, Messrs. Anderson & Co. are about to resort to the use of coke, which material is wholly used in England for manufacturing purposes. A large furnace for the purpose of converting bituminous coal into coke has been erected, and is now ready for active operations. The coke, when made, will be mixed with anthracite coal, a quantity of which the firm have managed to retain. The supply of earth for moulding purposes has also been cut off, but the demand is fully met by an abundance of the requisite article procured in the immediate vicinity of this city. It was formerly obtained from Troy, New York, The dealings of Messrs. Anderson & Co. with the North, before the interruption of commercial intercourse between the two sections, amounted annually to about $400,000 nearly half a million of dollars all of which enormous revenue has, we trust, been now lost to Yankeedom forever. Among the articles for which we relied wholly upon the North was boiler or plate-iron, and already its manufacture, in ample quantities, has been achieved by Messrs. Anderson & Co. The firm are now supplying the Government with large quantities of excellent plate-iron. The purpose to which it is applied will be ascertained through Yankee sources sooner or later.

The Tredegar Iron Works, it remains only to say, are operated wholly by water power, from the inexhaustible and unrivalled sources of the noble James river.

The following gentlemen comprise the firm of Anderson & Co.: Joseph R. Anderson, Robert Archer, John F. Tanner, Robert S. Archer. The officers of the Works are as follows: Alexander Delaney, Superintendent; Edward R. Archer, Assistant Superintendent; P. S. Derbyshire, Foreman of the Houndry; John Morfitt, of Machine Shop; J. W. Hercus, of Setting-up Shop; J. W. Curtis, of Finishing Shop; William H. Leach, of Blacksmith Shop; John Reid, of Pattern Shop; Thomas Hays, of Boiler Shop; and Guido Weis, of Carpenter Shop."

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
From the Charleston Mercury, 8/16/1861

NOTES OF THE WAR.
From Our Own Correspondent.


RICHMOND, VA. August 13.

A large majority of visitors to the fortifications in and around Charleston Harbor, are, doubtless, of the opinion that we are still indebted to Yankee or English mechanics for the heavy ordinance with which those works are supplied. Certainly, until the Messrs. EASON demonstrated the contrary, very few persons could have been persuaded that rifled cannon of as good finish, and nearly as great range, as the best imported guns, could be turned out of our own workshops. The fact is, and it should put our patriotism to the blush, that the general tendency with us has been to disparage domestic manufactures of every class, and to take it for granted that any article was the better in direct ratio to the distance from which it was brought. Whatever was home made must be inferior, and, acting upon this generally accepted axiom, our authorities and our people have as a rule, given all their larger contracts to Northern companies, without so much as taking the trouble to inquire into the ability of Southern houses to furnish the same articles at the same prices. Some excuse might be made for this singular inconsistency, if the question of economy were at all involved. We cannot expect trades people to be over-liberal , nor is it reasonable to suppose that, in making a bargain, any one is likely to disregard his own interest. But it is humiliatingly true, that even where our own mechanics have underbid their Northern rivals the latter have been preferred, under a mistake idea that the workmanship and material of the South are vastly inferior to those of the more wealthy and ingenious North.

A striking illustration of this blunder in political economy, and of the vassalage in which we have been so long and voluntarily held, is furnished by a recent experience in Virginia - happily, to unfavorable, owing to the maladroitness of the enemy. Some time last year a Board of Commissioners was appointed by the State to contract for tools and general machinery for the manufacture of five hundred rifle muskets per annum, to be equal to the best fire-arms and in the world, and requiring, therefore in their construction, the most perfect and complete machinery; the object being to establish on a permanent basis a State Armory.

With characteristic negligence, none of the Richmond contractors urged their proposals before the board, until it appeared that there was a strong probability of the work being given to the Massachusetts firm of AMES & CO. Fortunately for us, at this juncture, the impudence of the Yankee got the upper hand of his habitual caution. Confident of success, the New York Times brought out a ___ in which it sneered most contemptuously at the helplessness of Virginia, and exulted over the alleged inferiority other mechanics. This article, which was re-published in the Richmond Enquirer, stung the leading iron men here into energetic remonstrance and action. Mr. JOSEPH R. ANDERSON, the accomplished head of the Tredegar Works, at once perfected his plans, and soon offered the Commissioners proposals even more advantageous to the State than those tendered by AMES. Governor LETCHER, after full consideration of the matter, signified his approval of the contract, and the over-confident Yankee had the satisfaction of knowing that his Abolition friends had choused [sic] him out of a job which would have secured him large profits and additional celebrity. He is welcome now to make as much out of the United States as he can during the rest of the war. We are grateful for the opportunity he gave us to develope our resources, and, I think, we will prove to the full satisfaction of himself and the world, that we are equal, if not superior, to the North in the manufacture as well as the use of every variety of arms.

I had the pleasure of visiting, yesterday, the great Southern foundry, known as the Tredegar Iron Works; an establishment of which the whole South may be justly proud, and to which we are mainly indebted for the ordnance necessary to prosecute this war with energy and success.

It happened to be a busy day, and I was about giving up my proposed inspection for want of a cicerone, when Dr. ARCHER, a polite and cultivated gentleman, interested in experiments connected with the laboratory and ordinance department, kindly volunteered to act as my guide and interpreter through the mazes of the many detached shops which make up this monster establishment.

The traveller, entering Richmond by night, catches a glimpse, as he rolls slowly over the bridge which spans the James River, of the most picturesque sight which has relieved the monotony of his journey through pine forest and corn field for many a hundred miles. Far below him the shadow haunted stream, broken by jutting rocks and deep foliaged islands, brawls along, and as he looks over towards the left bank, where the clanger of a hundred anvils assails his ear, he sees the broad red glare of innumerable fires flashing out upon the ware, and dimly descries the dark forms of men moving seemingly through the flames which shoot up myriads of sparks into the smoke-obscured atmosphere. The next morning, if his curiosity so inclines him, a short walk along the canal banks to the armory grounds will bring him vis-a-vis with the smutty forges and blackened shops into which daylight transforms the unearthly looking works of the previous night.

Entering the first of these he will find himself in a Rolling Mill, surrounded by furnaces for melting and converting pig iron, and ponderous machinery for rolling it, into bars and axles and bolts and chains for railroads. �Step this side,� says the polite conductor, �you can see the process by which this piece of carbonized and crystallized iron is converted into the fibrous material which the skillful workman can shape into any form he pleases.� First a long slab or bar of ordinary cast iron is placed in the furnace and brought to a white heat. Armed with a powerful pair of forceps, a gigantic negro seizes it by one extremity and carrying it rapidly to the roller - which consists of a series of revolving wheels, whose broad edges are at equally decreasing distances from an iron bed below - thrust it over the top of the machine to his fellow-workman opposite, who passes one end with equal dexterity between the first wheel and the bed, through which it is squeezed out with diminished thickness. Seized again as it emerges it is again handed over, to pass between wheel No. 2, and so da capo until the requisite degree of compression has been attained. Next, the bar is cut up into a number of small pieces and roasted in a second furnace, where, as it begins to melt, it is continuously stirred and conglomerated into a large amorphous mass about a foot and a half in diameter. This process is graphically called puddling. Here there are a half dozen workmen, stripped to the waist and reeking with perspiration, one of whom catches up this lump of glowing metal, transfers it to a kind of truck, ladle-shaped opposite the handles, and by a very skillful manoeuvre thrusts it into the open jaws of a revolving, stove-like machine. What the intestinal arrangements of this iron-feeding devil may be, I cannot say, but in a single second he spits out the white hot morsel, reduced in size by at least one half. This lump is again rolled, brought once more to a welding heat, and the work is done.

A few yards further on you come to the second Rolling Mill, where all the kinds of large and small iron are made; and attached to this mill is the extensive Spike Factory, four stories high, where rods are fashioned into spikes by three powerful machines, each of which turns them out at the rate of one a second, or about twenty five tons a day; these, falling into the lowest story, are carefully inspected, packed, marked and stored, ready for transportation.

One of the most interesting objects in this part of the building is an enormous punch, whose power is equal to about twenty tons to the square inch. A long iron plate is carefully adjusted; two men stand by the machine - one to govern its movements, which is done with all ease by a simple lever, and the other to bring the plate accurately to the spot where the whole is to be cut. A motion of the handle, and the immense mass rises noiselessly a few inches; another motion, and the hard steel punch quietly, and without the slightest apparent resistance presses out a circular plug, an inch thick and an inch and a quarter in diameter. The plates they were punching when I visited the works are intended for -----, a purpose which will rather astonish some good people when they find it out.

I have not time to take you through the cooper shop, or the brass foundry, or the machine shop, with its powerful hydraulic press for forcing car wheels on their axles, and as indicator to show the exact power required to effect it; or the locomotive, or boiler or blacksmith shops, in the latter of which twenty-five fires are blasting, and a large steam hammer, with innumerable younger brothers, are running a tilt, and making the day hideous with sound. My lyre is tuned to war, and I only sung of that puddling process as an episode nearly connected with the main plot of cannon making. But if you will come into one of the foundry buildings with me, I will show you a sight that will make you open your eyes as wide as LINCOLN will when he sees JOHNSTON and BEAUREGARD riding up to the White House with twice ten thousand rebels at their back, craving pardon for that naughty affair of Bull Run. All through that building were a hundred men and boys are making shot and shell, canister, shrapnel, percussion and others, and leaving the laboratory on your left, where they are cutting and filling fuzes, and strapping spherical cases, and fixing leaden and wooden sabots on all sorts of destructive missiles, pass straight through that door before you, and look around. Those four irregular cylinders sticking up out of the central pit, are the moulds of our eight inch columbiads. Lying by their side, is one in sections, not yet fitted together, which gives you a good idea of their construction; and that big iron stove, with a trough running from it into the pit, is the furnace out of which the molten mass that these moulds will shape into huge cannon runs. If you go into the yard by the side of this foundry, you will get a notion of how cannon look in the rough, and, in the building opposite, you may see the workmen boring out the guns with enormous lathes, and cutting off their honey-combed months, and shaping their ragged cascables, and turning off their trunions, and boring their vents.

Here, too, cannon of all sizes, from 8 inch columbiads to the lightest field pieces, are in process of rifling. The most beautiful of these are the 3 inch field guns, constructed on a new principle, with twelve grooves, and carrying a ten pound shot, invented by Dr. ARCHER. The Washington Artillery, of New Orleans were supplied with these, and the Major commanding told me that he never has seen any thing like their accuracy of fire. At one time, in the battle of the 21st, a section of his battery was very much annoyed by one of the enemy�s guns, and he ordered it be silenced. At the first fire it was struck directly in the axle, and the piece tumbled over into the mud, harmless henceforth, as far as that day�s work was concerned.

My space will not allow me to speak of the brass boat howitzers, and other naval guns which are fashioned in these works. A far as my limits allow, I have tried to give your readers a concise description of the most magnificent establishment, in point of the variety as well as magnitude of its operations, in the broad land. I hazard nothing in affirming that the work turned out from the Tredegar shops will compare favorably with any in the world. It has all the advantages of the best iron, the most consummate skill, and its machinery is driven by water power - the cheapest of all forces at our command. To its enterprising proprietors the South owes a debt of gratitude, which they are now able to appreciate, and which we trust, they will repay by active and liberal patronage in the future.

J. D. B.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Main building at Tredegar as it is today, and a scale model inside the museum showing details of casting operations during CW times:

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Old Dominion University
ODU Digital Commons
History Theses & Dissertations History
Summer 2011

Richmond Iron: Tredegar's Role in Southern Industry During the Civil War and Reconstruction
by Lisa Hilleary

Old Dominion University
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected].

ABSTRACT
The American South contained few iron industries in the decades before the Civil War. Not until the Civil War did southern states produce significant quantities of vital industrial products, such as iron. Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, was a rare exception. Under the ownership of Joseph R. Anderson, the company established a national reputation for quality products. Prior to the war, Tredegar did business with northerners and with the Federal government. During the war, Tredegar became one of the main weapons suppliers to the Confederate military. Since this iron company physically and economically survived the war, Anderson regained many of his antebellum contracts. A few new iron industries appeared throughout the South during Reconstruction, but they lacked the capital resources necessary for immediate success - capital that Anderson had less trouble acquiring. Although Tredegar ultimately failed to make the transition to steel, the company represented a route to industrialization not experienced in other southern states, making Tredegar's experience, and thus Richmond's experience, unique from other southern companies and cities.


https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=history_etds
829

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • Richmond Iron Tredegar's Role in Southern Industry During the Civil War and Reconstruction.pdf
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University of Richmond
UR Scholarship Repository
Master's Theses
Student Research
5-1978

The Tredegar iron works : 1865-1876
Dennis Maher Hallerman

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected].

The Tredegar Iron Works rose to prominence during the Civil War as the chief armorer of the Confederacy. That four-year period represents the focal point of the company's existence, however, the Civil War experience of the Tredegar should not be regarded as a singular industrial monument to the Confederacy but as a maturation process for the company itself. The focus of this thesis is the rebirth and subsequent growth and contraction of the Tredegar in the ten years following the Civil War.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • The Tredegar iron works _ 1865-1876.pdf
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It wasn't of the same order of magnitude as the rolled iron industry in Pennsylvania.
View attachment 419144

View attachment 419143

Interesting chart - PA production comes out to about $49 a ton while VA is about $64...

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Virginia Commonwealth University
VCU Scholars Compass
Theses and Dissertations
Graduate School
2015

Confederate Richmond: A City's Call to Arms
Tucker L. Modesitt

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Abstract
This work mainly focuses on putting the laborers of the Richmond Armory and the Tredegar Iron Works into the context of Civil War Richmond by focusing on their skills, backgrounds, and loyalties throughout the conflict. It highlights the similarities and differences between the two institutions and the legacies that they left behind in the years following the war. It also sheds light on some of the problems facing the Confederacy during the course of the war and its struggle to procure arms


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USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • Confederate Richmond_ A Citys Call to Arms.pdf
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University of Richmond
UR Scholarship Repository
Honors Theses
Student Research
5-1957

An investigation of the history of the Virginia manufactory of arms
James N. Haskett

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected].

From its beginning in 1798 until its destruction in 1865, the Richmond Armory was to play a significant role in Virginia history of that era. Its growth or degeneration can be directly traced to the national situation at that time. In a time of national tension, it was expanded, and in times of peace and tranquility it was allowed to fall into partial disuse. Though its part in times of crisis was more striking, its place in the commercial life of the state in times of peace can hardly be ignored either. It kept the arms in the hands of the Militia in working order and kept the State's reserve arms in a state of readiness in order to meet any possible emergency. It served to train a number of young Virginians in the manufacture of arms, and this knowledge was diffused throughout the State by them either in this field or channeled into other forms of mechanical activities. It also served to train a number of men who, with former United States Army Officers, formed the nucleus of the Confederate Army Ordnance Department. In the production of arms, it was to prove an invaluable asset to the Confederacy throughout the War but most especially in the early days of the War.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

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