The Fayetteville Arsenal-- Part 7: 10,000 Rifles and 900,000 Rounds of Ammunition

From Waymarking.  From a Civil War Trails marker.

The U.S. Arsenal at Fayetteville, N.C. was constructed between 1838 and 1853, but the facility lacked equipment until 1857.  Before it could be used, the Civil War began and it was seized by state militia.  In June 1861, the state turned it over to the Confederacy.

Workers converted 36,000 flintlock muskets to percussion cap weapons and installed machinery captured at Harpers Ferry, in present-day West Virginia.  The arsenal produced about 10,000 rifles and assembled a few pistol carbines.

But its greatest contribution to the Confederacy was the more than 900,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, signal rockets and friction primers assembled by women workers.

--Old Secesh