|
As the Confederate Naval Iron Works, it supplied equipment for Confederate ships. The company's products and its steady growth were important factors in the economic development of Columbus Georgia and the region.
In 1853, William R. Brown, who had operated a foundry since the 1840s, organized the larger Columbus Iron Works. This expansion mirrored the transformation of Columbus Georgia from a frontier town (1828) into one of the earliest and largest southern industrial centers; by 1860, its textile production ranked second within the South.
Reflecting this vitality, the Columbus Iron Works, though less than a decade old in 1860, already manufactured a wide variety of merchandise: kettles and ovens; brass castings; cast-iron columns and store fronts; sugar, a grist, and saw mills; and steam engines to power these mills, cotton gins, and riverboats.
The Civil War expanded the capacity and scope of the Columbus Iron Works and the city's other industries. As the textile mills tripled their output and new companies started manufacturing uniforms, swords, pistols, and rifles, the Iron Works began fabricating small cannons for local military units. These weapons included the "Ladies Defender," cast from brass collected by the city's women and the "Red Jacket," used by the Columbus Guards to salute Jefferson Davis at his inauguration in Montgomery. |
|
By 1862, the Iron Works was molding and manufacturing mortars, brass twelve-pounders, and wrought iron rifled cannons under contract from the Confederate Ordinance Department. An experimental breech loading cannon revealed the expertise of the company's employees, but they only produced one.
In June of 1862, the Confederate Navy leased the Columbus Iron Works. James H. Warner, formerly a Chief Engineer in the U.S. Navy, converted the C. S. (Columbus Georgia) Naval Iron Works into the largest manufacturer of naval machinery within the Confederacy.
Its engines and boilers drove at least half of the steam-powered vessels built by the Confederacy, including the gunboat Chattahoochee and the ironclad Muscogee. (Portions of the Chattahoochee's engines, extremely rare Civil War artifacts, are preserved at the James W. Woodruff, Jr. Confederate Naval Museum).
The C.S. Naval Yard, a separate organization, built the Muscogee in cooperation with the adjacent C.S. Naval Iron Works. Workers from both facilities joined other militia units who tried to prevent General James Wilson from capturing Columbus Georgia on the night of April 16, 1865. The next morning, eight days after Robert E. Lee's surrender, Union troops burned the city's cotton warehouses, the Muscogee, and all the war-related industries, which collectively had supplied the Confederacy with more manufactured goods than any city except Richmond.
Now, the Columbus Georgia Convention and Trade Center is located in the Historic Columbus Iron Works. Painstakingly restored to its Civil War splendor, the Iron Works is situated on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and the Trade Center is a local landmark of the downtown area. |
| Phone, Address and Website |
| Phone: 706-327-4522 - Address: 801 Front Ave., Columbus Georgia- Columbus Iron Works and Convention Center Website |
|
|
|
Visit:
 Georgia Civil War Battles
GA Civil War Sites
|
