Civil War Original Period Items

Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition

Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition
Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition

Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition

The Selma Ordnance and Naval Foundry, also known as the Selma Naval Foundry and Ironworks and the Selma Arsenal and Gun Works, was a leading manufacturing center for the South during the Civil War. The facility, located on the Alabama River in Dallas County, produced finished war materials for the Confederate armed forces from pig-iron ingots from the state's blast furnaces. At its peak around 1863-64, this manufacturing center employed as many as 10,000 workers in approximately 100 buildings and was second only to the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia, in the production of war materials. McRae, a former Mississippi legislator, secured a contract with the Confederate government to cast cannon and erected a foundry at Selma.

McRae's foundry joined a large number of private enterprises that were producing items such as shovels, uniforms, swords, and buttons. Selma's manufacturing center received another major addition in 1862, when Gen. Josiah Gorgas, chief of the Confederate Bureau of Ordnance, moved the former Federal Arsenal located at Mt. Vernon near Mobile to Selma.

This relocation was necessitated by the fall of New Orleans and the increasing vulnerability of Alabama's coast to Union naval forces. Nice old original Imperial Sword Co. This is a classic example of a blockade runner bowie knife. Imported from England for the Confederacy. Centrally located in the Confederacy hundreds of miles from enemy lines, Selma was the logical choice for a major manufacturing center, which was needed to compliment the output of the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond.

Its location on the Alabama River provided access to Mobile Bay, and it was connected by rail to Alabama's rich iron and coal fields. Some 10,000 workers were employed in all of the various components of the complex at its peak around 1864, with 3,000 workers in the foundry and another 3,000 workers in the arsenal.

A few of these workers were German craftsmen, but most were women, children, and slaves who were hired out by local landowners. Many mechanics employed in the city prior to the war were either conscripted or had volunteered for service, hampering Selma's productivity during the conflict. This workforce turned out almost every item needed by the Confederate soldiers in the field, from horseshoe nails to gun carriages, and produced approximately half of the Confederacy's cannon and two-thirds of its ammunition during the last two years of the war. The facility was further impeded throughout its existence by inadequate supplies of iron.

ORIGINAL Selma Arsenal rifleman's knife produced during the Civil War for the confederacy. As good as it gets! The item "Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition" is in sale since Wednesday, September 13, 2017. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Militaria\Civil War (1861-65)\Civil War Veterans' Items". The seller is "realroughriders" and is located in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

This item can be shipped worldwide.


Original Confed Selma Arsenal Rifleman's Knife Civil War Era Excellent Condition