Confederate Armory Site | |
Location | Holly Springs, Mississippi, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 34°46′43.5″N89°26′5.5″W / 34.778750°N 89.434861°W Coordinates: 34°46′43.5″N89°26′5.5″W / 34.778750°N 89.434861°W |
Area | area = 32 acres (13 ha) |
Built | 1859 |
NRHP reference No. | 72000699 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 11, 1972 |
The Confederate Armory Site, a.k.a. Jones, McElwain and Company Iron Foundry, is a historic site in Holly Springs, Mississippi, USA. It contains the scant ruins of the foundry built there in 1859, converted to an armory in 1861 by the Confederate States Army, used as a hospital by the Union Army in November 1862, and razed by the Confederates a month later.
Located in Holly Springs, the county seat of Marshall County, in Northern Mississippi [2] [3] the foundry was established in 1859 as the headquarters of the Jones, McElwain and Company Iron Foundry. [3] The railings the business produced can be seen at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs as well as in New Orleans, Louisiana. [4] The foundry also made iron used on slave plantations. [3] The headquarters included several buildings and outbuildings, a foundry chimney, and ponds used as a water source for the foundry. [3]
In 1861, at the outset of the American Civil War which lasted until 1865, Wallace S. McElwain turned the foundry into an armory for the Confederate States Army. [3] The foundry was commissioned by the government of the Confederate States of America to make 20,000 U.S. Model 1841-designed rifles and 10,000 U.S. Model 1842-designed muskets. [3] They were also commissioned to make 5,000 rifles for the state of Mississippi. [3] No arms bearing the marks of the foundry have been found, it is therefore believed that the foundry was able only to repair and convert existing arms before it was in danger of being overrun after the Battle of Shiloh. The equipment was moved to Macon, Georgia and the weapons on hand were sent to Grenada, Mississippi. [3]
On November 13, 1862, the Union Army invaded Holly Springs, and Union Major Horace R. Witz turned the armory into a hospital for Northern soldiers. [3] It was also used as a storage facility for medical supplies used by Northerners. [3] However, on December 20, 1862, Confederate General Earl Van Dorn burned down the site. [3]
The site remained untouched until 1971. [3]
It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since April 11, 1972. [2]
Holly Springs is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, at the border with southern Tennessee. Near the Mississippi Delta, the area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations and was dependent on enslaved Africans. After the American Civil War, many freedmen continued to work in agriculture but as sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
The Springfield Armory, located in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, was the primary center for the manufacture of United States military firearms from 1777 until its closing in 1968. It was the first federal armory and one of the first factories in the United States dedicated to the manufacture of weapons. The site is preserved as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Western Massachusetts' only unit of the national park system. It features the world's largest collection of historic American firearms.
Hollywood Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery located next to Richmond, Virginia's Oregon Hill neighborhood at 412 South Cherry Street. Characterized by rolling hills and winding paths overlooking the James River, it is the resting place of two United States Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler, as well as the only Confederate States President, Jefferson Davis. It is also the resting place of 28 Confederate generals, more than any other cemetery in the country; these include George Pickett and J.E.B. Stuart.
The Battle of Hatchie's Bridge, also known as Battle of Davis Bridge or Matamora, was fought on October 5, 1862, in Hardeman County and McNairy County, Tennessee, as the final engagement of the Iuka–Corinth Campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn's army successfully evaded capture by the Union Army, following his defeat at the Battle of Corinth.
Edward Cary Walthall was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and a postbellum United States Senator from Mississippi.
Fort Massachusetts is a fort on West Ship Island along the Mississippi Gulf Coast of the United States. It was built following the War of 1812, with brick walls during 1859–1866, and remained in use until 1903. Currently, it is a historical tourist attraction within the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The fort is located about halfway along the north shore of West Ship Island, near a boat pier.
Camp Dennison was a military recruiting, training, and medical post for the United States Army during the American Civil War. It was located near Cincinnati, Ohio, not far from the Ohio River. The camp was named for Cincinnati native William Dennison, Ohio's governor at the start of the war.
John Thomas Wilder was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, noted principally for capturing the key mountain pass of Hoover's Gap during the Tullahoma Campaign in Central Tennessee in June 1863. Wilder had personally ensured that his "Lightning Brigade" of mounted infantry was equipped with the new Spencer repeating rifle, though he initially had to appeal to his men to pay for these weapons themselves, before the government agreed to carry the cost. The victory at Hoover's Gap was attributed largely to Wilder's persistence in procuring the new rifles, which totally disoriented the enemy.
During the American Civil War, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Union, providing a huge supply of military manpower, equipment, and leadership to the Federal government. The state raised over 360,000 soldiers for the Federal armies, and served as a major source of artillery guns, small arms, ammunition, armor for the new revolutionary style of ironclad types of gunboats for the rapidly expanding United States Navy, and food supplies. The Phoenixville Iron Company by itself produced well over 1,000 cannons, and the Frankford Arsenal was a major supply depot.
Richmond, Virginia served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for almost the whole of the American Civil War. It was a vital source of weapons and supplies for the war effort, and the terminus of five railroads.
The Richmond rifle was a rifled musket produced by the Richmond Armory in Richmond, Virginia, for use by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Elkanah Brackin Greer was an antebellum cotton planter, merchant, and then a general in the Confederate States Army who served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
Liendo Plantation is an historic cotton plantation in Waller County, Texas, United States. Named after its original owner, José Justo Liendo, the plantation was purchased in 1873 by sculptor Elisabet Ney and her husband, physician Edmund Montgomery. The plantation is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Camp White Sulphur Springs Confederate Cemetery is an American Civil War cemetery in Arkansas. It is located northeast of the village of Sulphur Springs, also known as White Sulphur Springs, in Jefferson County.
Hillcrest Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, United States. Established in 1837, it is known as the "Little Arlington of the South." It contains the burials of five Confederate generals.
Wallace S. McElwain (1832-1882) was an American businessman.
Oakleigh is a historic mansion in Holly Springs, Mississippi, USA.
Walter Place is a historic mansion in Holly Springs, Mississippi, United States. Built in 1860 for pro-Union Harvey Washington Walter, the President of the Mississippi Central Railroad. The mansion was the temporary home of Union General Ulysses Grant and his wife Julia Grant during part of the American Civil War. Later, it was the summer residence of Oscar Johnson, Jr., the co-founder of the International Shoe Company. A combination of Greek Revival and Gothic Revival architectural styles, it was the most expensive house in Mississippi on the market in 2011.
Spires Boling (1812–1880), whose name is often misspelled as Spires Bolling, was a slaveowner, master builder, architect, and distillery founder in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He is known for holding the journalist Ida B. Wells and her family in bondage. There is now a museum dedicated to her in his former home the Boling–Gatewood House. He is also remembered for his grand, columned, neoclassical residential buildings and his design for the Marshall County, Mississippi Courthouse in Holly Springs. His courthouse design was also used by the firm of Willis, Sloan, and Trigg for two other courthouses and featured in the work of William Faulkner. The Walter Place mansion he designed was home to Ulysses S. Grant and his wife for a period during the American Civil War.
The 10-pounder Parrott rifle, Model 1861 was a cast iron muzzle-loading rifled cannon that was adopted by the United States Army in 1861 and often used in field artillery units during the American Civil War. Like other Parrott rifles, the gun breech was reinforced by a distinctive wrought iron reinforcing band. The gun fired a 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) projectile to a distance of 1,850 yd (1,692 m) at an elevation of 5°. The 10-pounder Parrott rifle was capable of firing shell, shrapnel shell, canister shot, or solid shot. Midway through the war, the Federal government discontinued the 2.9 in (74 mm) version in favor of a 3.0 in (76 mm) version. Despite the reinforcing band, the guns occasionally burst without warning, inflicting injury on the gun crews. The Confederate States of America manufactured a number of successful copies of the gun.