Augusta Arsenal | |
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Location | Augusta, Georgia |
Coordinates | 33°28′34″N82°01′27″W / 33.47615°N 82.02426°W |
Founded | 1816 |
Built | 1827–29 |
Built for | Government of the United States |
Governing body | State of Georgia |
The Augusta Arsenal was a 19th-century fortification in Augusta, Georgia. Established in 1816 and initially completed on the Georgia bank of the Savannah River in 1819, it was moved to the former Belle Vue estate in the Summerville neighborhood of Augusta in 1827 due to health concerns after several fever epidemics. [1]
The Belle Vue estate was established by George and Eliza Talbot Walker. It was the birthplace of their granddaughter, Octavia Walton Le Vert in 1811. [2] George later sold Belle Vue to his brother, Freeman Walker, for use as a summer estate. [3] Freeman Walker sold the 72 acres (29 ha) property, with the exception of one acre that contained the Walker Family Cemetery, to the United States government for $6,000 in 1826. The arsenal was moved to the new location the following year, with four large brick buildings connected by a twenty-two inch thick wall completed in 1829. Troops from the arsenal took part in various campaigns involving the Cherokee, Muscogee, and Seminole tribes and took part in the Mexican–American War. [1]
Following the secession of Georgia from the Union, then governor, Joseph E. Brown, visited the arsenal on January 23, 1861, and demanded that the commander, Arnold Elzey surrender the facility to the state. Elzey initially refused. 600 citizens of Augusta then volunteered for militia duty based on rumors that the state was going to take the arsenal from Elzey and his small contingent of 82 soldiers. Brown gave Elzey a second chance to surrender the facility, demanding an answer by 9 o'clock the next morning. After notifying his superiors of the situation via telegraph, Elzey turned the arsenal over to the state the next day. [4]
By summer 1861, the Confederate Chief of Ordnance, Josiah Gorgas, determined to greatly expand the arsenal around the original nucleus. His plans included building a "great arsenal of construction where ammunition, field and siege artillery projectiles and ordnance stores in general [would] be made in large quantities." [5] April 1862 saw the arsenal placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Rains. He was also put in charge of erecting the enormous Confederate Powderworks, which he placed at the 1816 arsenal site. The arsenal produced large quantities of war materiel from 1863 to 1865. The arsenal was under threat in November 1864 during Sherman's March to the Sea, with equipment prepared for evacuation until the Union Army turned toward Savannah. In the end, the arsenal was surrendered back to Federal control when Union troops entered Augusta on May 3, 1865. [5] The Augusta Arsenal is still the home to three Confederate "12-pounder Napoleon" cannons. Two of the cannons are displayed at the front and rear of Payne Hall, which is the original arsenal headquarters building, and a third is displayed outside the original arsenal guardhouse. The arsenal guardhouse was erected in 1866 to guard the entrance to the arsenal. In 2004 it was converted to a small museum that displays dozens of artifacts, photographs, and various items uncovered during archeological excavations of the area. The arsenal military cemetery, adjacent to the Walker Family cemetery, houses the graves of forty-eight soldiers, twelve women, and ten children, along with a few unidentified graves, dating back to 1841. [6]
The arsenal was a valuable asset for the war effort during the Spanish–American War. It manufactured various types of equipment and served as a supply and repair point. During World War I the arsenal served as a center for the repair of small arms. Following minimum staffing after close of World War I, World War II saw activity at the site increase enormously, with the construction of roughly fifty new buildings. Primary activities were directed at maintenance and supply of weapons and ammunition, with over 1000 people working at the arsenal. [7]
The arsenal remained in operation until 1955, at which point the decision was made to close it. Most of the property was given to the Georgia Board of Education. It was converted into the Junior College of Augusta in 1957. The name was changed to Augusta College in 1958, and later as Augusta State University. In 2012, Augusta State University merged with Georgia Health Sciences University to become Georgia Regents University. After much public and alumni discontent, the school was renamed Augusta University in 2015. [1] The arsenal commandant's house, one of the original four arsenal buildings, is now known as the Stephen Vincent Benét House. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark on November 11, 1971. Noted poet and novelist Stephen Vincent Benét lived here when his father, Colonel James Walker Benét commanded the Augusta Arsenal from 1911 to 1919. The house later served as the President's House of Augusta College. [8] [9]
George Walton, a Founding Father of the United States, signed the United States Declaration of Independence while representing Georgia in the Continental Congress. Walton also served briefly as the second chief executive of Georgia in 1779 and was again named governor in 1789–1790. In 1795, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, to complete the unexpired term of a senator who had resigned.
Augusta State University was a public university in Augusta, Georgia. It merged with Georgia Health Sciences University in 2012 to form Georgia Regents University, later known as Augusta University.
John Daniel Imboden, American lawyer, Virginia state legislator, and a Confederate army general. During the American Civil War, he commanded an irregular cavalry force. After the war, he resumed practicing law, became a writer, and was active in land development founding the town of Damascus, Virginia.
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James Alexander Walker was a Virginia lawyer, politician, and Confederate general during the American Civil War, later serving as a United States Congressman for two terms. He earned the nickname "Stonewall Jim" for his days as commander of the famed Stonewall Brigade. Walker is the first graduate of the Virginia Military Institute to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. He was expelled from the Institute weeks before graduation in 1852 amidst a bitter dispute with then-mathematics professor Thomas Jackson, but was granted his degree in 1872 in recognition of his military service in the American Civil War.
Robert Houstoun Anderson was a West Point graduate, an infantry officer in the United States Army and served as a Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war he served as the Chief of Police for the city of Savannah for 23 years and was twice appointed to serve on the Visitor's Board of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. With General Wheeler, General Anderson played an important role in reunification, recommending improvements and changes at West Point like electricity and the telephone in 1887.
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The Stephen Vincent Benét House, commonly referred to as Benét House, is a historic house on the Summerville campus of Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia. The house was built 1827–29 as the Commandant's House of the Augusta Arsenal, and is a much-altered example of Federal period architecture. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its association with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943), who lived here in the 1910s. The house, which housed the official residence of the Augusta State University for a time, presently houses the Summerville campus's office of admissions.
Augusta, Georgia was founded in 1736 as part of the British colony of Georgia, under the supervision of colony founder James Oglethorpe. It was the colony's second established town, after Savannah. Today, Augusta is the third-largest city in Georgia, and the largest city of the Central Savannah River Area.
Brigadier-General William Robertson Boggs was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was noted as a military engineer who constructed the fortifications that protected some of the Confederacy's most important seaports.
John Creed Moore was a United States Army officer and a graduate of West Point. He is known for being a Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War and his works in the Texas educational system.
John King Jackson was an American lawyer and soldier. He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, mainly in Florida and the Western Theater of the conflict. Afterward Jackson resumed his law practice until dying from pneumonia a year after the war ended.
Octavia Walton Le Vert, née Octavia Celestia Valentine Walton, was an American socialite and writer. She became one of the first female southern writers to achieve national recognition. Although largely faded from history today, she was a well-known figure during her own time. From the 1830s through the 1850s she was noted for hosting gatherings of prominent politicians, noted literary figures, and professionals of all types. She was friends with a variety of prominent 19th century figures.
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The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Augusta, Georgia, USA.