Qualla: Fayetteville Arsenal

Fayetteville Arsenal: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DrStew82, CC BY-SA 4.0. The cornerstone was laid on April 9, 1838, the date carefully chosen for what the building was meant to be: a federal arsenal that would stand for generations. By Civil War's end, it had stood for twenty-seven years. Sherman's soldiers used railroad rails as battering rams to bring down its octagonal corner towers. When the brick fell, leftover artillery shells in the rubble cooked off in the fire. The Fayetteville Arsenal was destroyed twice in the span of a few hours - first by the rams, then by its own ordnance exploding inside the wreckage. What you can visit today is what survives of a building that no longer exists.

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Image: DrStew82 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fayetteville Arsenal: Why It Was Built

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DrStew82, CC BY-SA 4.0. The War of 1812 had taught the federal government a hard lesson about the geography of national defense. The country's arms factories were too clustered to defend against a determined raider. Congress began authorizing new arsenals spread across the young republic, none more than...

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Image: DrStew82 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fayetteville Arsenal: The Quiet Surrender

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. On April 22, 1861, before North Carolina had formally seceded, Governor John Ellis sent Warren Winslow to negotiate the arsenal's transfer. General Walker Draughon mobilized the North Carolina Militia - the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry under Major Wright Huske (the FIL...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Fayetteville Arsenal: The Fayetteville Rifle

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DrStew82, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Confederate Army captured the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in April 1861, they seized the most valuable industrial asset in the South: the rifle-manufacturing machinery that had been making U.S. infantry weapons for decades. They couldn't keep it there - Harpers Ferry w...

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Image: DrStew82 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fayetteville Arsenal: March 11, 1865

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DrStew82, CC BY-SA 4.0. By early 1865, William Tecumseh Sherman's army was moving north through the Carolinas. Confederate Colonel Childs, commanding at Fayetteville, ordered earthworks built along the approaches; you can still see remnants on the grounds of the Veterans Administration hospital on Ramse...

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Image: DrStew82 | CC BY-SA 4.0