St. Louis Arsenal
Encyclopedia
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
owned by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the St. Louis
St. Louis in the Civil War
St. Louis, Missouri was a strategic location during the American Civil War, an important city to the Union army and navy. It was a major supply depot and launching point for campaigns in the Western Theater.-German Americans:...
arsenal's contents were seized and removed to Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
by Union
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
Captain Nathaniel Lyon
Nathaniel Lyon
Nathaniel Lyon was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War and is noted for his actions in the state of Missouri at the beginning of the conflict....
, an act that helped fuel tension between secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
ists and those citizens loyal to the Federal government.
Origin and early years of service
In 1827, the United States War Department decided to replace a 22-year old arsenalArsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
, Fort Belle Fontaine (located 15 miles (24.1 km) north of St. Louis on the bluffs above the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
) with a larger facility to meet the needs of the rapidly growing military forces in the West. Lt. Martin Thomas selected a 37 acres (149,733.8 m²) tract of land on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
and procured the land for the new arsenal. It was close to the main military base, Jefferson Barracks
Jefferson Barracks Military Post
The Jefferson Barracks Military Post, located on the Mississippi River at Lemay, Missouri, which is just south of St. Louis, Missouri,was, at first owned land by the DeGamache's then borrowed by military leaders, but after war, the land was not returned. It was an important and highly active U.S....
, and had easy access to the city and the river. By 1840, 22 separate buildings had been erected, and a garrison of 30 ordnance soldiers manned the site, along with 30 civilian employees, who assembled finished weapons and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
from parts supplied by private contractors and armories. In its original configuration it included Arsenal Island in the Mississippi River. The island has since disappeared.
When the Mexican-American War erupted, the demand for small arms, ammunition, and artillery substantially increased. At its peak during the war years, the St. Louis Arsenal employed over 500 civilian workers. During the two years of war, the arsenal produced 19,500 artillery rounds, 8.4 million small arms cartridges, 13.7 million musket balls, 4.7 million rifle balls, 17 field cannon with full attachments, 15,700 stand of small arms, 4,600 edged weapons, and much more. Production was curtailed following the cessation of the war, although the arsenal workers (back to their normal complement of 30) did spend considerable time refurbishing and reconditioning surplus arms returned from the war.
Another flurry of activity accompanied the Utah War
Utah War
The Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between LDS settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 until July 1858...
in 1857–58, when President James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
ordered an expedition of Federal troops to suppress the Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
. Employment exceeded 100 workers, and the arsenal provided much of the weaponry for William S. Harney
William S. Harney
William Selby Harney was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. He was born in what is today part of Nashville, Tennessee but at the time was known as Haysborough....
's forces.
Civil War
Anticipating secession, a number of Southern statesSouthern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
asked for their quota of arms and ammunitions to be shipped from the St. Louis Arsenal to state armories and aresenals. Buchanan's Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
, John B. Floyd
John B. Floyd
John Buchanan Floyd was the 31st Governor of Virginia, U.S. Secretary of War, and the Confederate general in the American Civil War who lost the crucial Battle of Fort Donelson.-Early life:...
, a Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
n, was accused of aiding in this transfer of arms and resigned his post in December 1860 to return to Virginia. An investigation cleared him, but many suspected that his involvement had helped arm the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
and prepare it for war in advance of actual ordinances of secession from the individual states.
The armory, which was used for assembling weapons rather than manufacturing them, had the biggest collection of rifles and muskets of any of the slave states and was fourth after Massachusetts, District of Columbia, New York and California in total number of muskets and rifles (38,141). It also had the third largest arms and munitions manufactury in the Federal system (behind Springfield, MA and Harper's Ferry, VA).
Despite its enormous strategic importance, it had traditionally been lightly guarded, with a staff of forty military and civilian personnel.
In March 1861 the Missouri Constitutional Convention of 1861 voted 98 to 1 to stay in the Union but not supply weapons or men to either side if war broke out. The security of such a large munitions depot became an immediate flash point.
On April 20, 1861 a pro-Confederate mob at Liberty, Missouri
Liberty, Missouri
Liberty is a city in Clay County, Missouri and is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. At the 2007 population estimate, the city population was 29,993...
seized the only other arsenal in the state—the Liberty Arsenal
Liberty Arsenal
The Liberty Arsenal was an United States Army arsenal at Liberty, Missouri in Clay County, Missouri, that was seized by Confederate sympathizers on April 20, 1861, being an early occurrence in a sequence of skirmishes and battles that was to define Missouri in the American Civil War...
and made off with about 1,000 rifles and muskets.
On April23, Brigadier General Harney departed for Washington, leaving Captain Lyon in temporary command of the Western Department an the Arsenal. Lyon immediately began enlisting Missouri Unionist Volunteers into Fedeal service. This action had been ordered over a week before by Secretary of War Simon Cameron
Simon Cameron
Simon Cameron was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of War for Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War. After making his fortune in railways and banking, he turned to a life of politics. He became a U.S. senator in 1845 for the state of Pennsylvania,...
, but blocked by General Harney's refusal to execute his orders.
Cameron, General-in-Chief Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
, and midwestern Unionists continued to be concerned for the safety of the over 30,000 weapons at the Arsenal. During the evening of April 29, on orders from Secretary Cameron, Captain Nathaniel Lyon
Nathaniel Lyon
Nathaniel Lyon was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War and is noted for his actions in the state of Missouri at the beginning of the conflict....
transported 21,000 rifles and muskets to Alton, Illinois via steamer.
Around May 1 Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson who had favored the South but had publicly pledged to uphold Missouri neutrality (at least until open hostilities between the Federal Government and the CSA) called out the Missouri Volunteer Militia for "maneuvers" about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northwest of the arsenal at Lindell's Grove (now the campus of St. Louis University) then outside the city of St. Louis in what has been called "Camp Jackson."
Lyon suspected the maneuvers were a thinly veiled attempt to seize the arsenal (suspicions furthered by the discovery that Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
had sent artillery to the maneuvers).
On May 10, Lyon surrounded the militia who surrendered. While marching the Militamen through the streets of St. Louis back to the arsenal, a riot erupted. The troops opened fire on the crowd killing 28 and wounding 90 civilians outright and then killing another seven as the night progressed in what is called the Camp Jackson Affair.
On May 11, the Missouri General Assembly approved a measure to create the Missouri State Guard
Missouri State Guard
The Missouri State Guard was a state militia organized in the state of Missouri during the early days of the American Civil War. While not initially a formal part of the Confederate States Army, the State Guard fought alongside Confederate troops and, at times, under regular Confederate...
to "resist invasion" (by federal forces) and "supress rebellion" (by Missouri Unionists enrolled in Federal service) with Sterling Price
Sterling Price
Sterling Price was a lawyer, planter, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil...
as its major general.
On May 12, Price and William S. Harney
William S. Harney
William Selby Harney was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. He was born in what is today part of Nashville, Tennessee but at the time was known as Haysborough....
signed the Price-Harney Truce
Price-Harney Truce
The Price-Harney Truce was a document signed on May 21, 1861 between United States Army General William S. Harney and Missouri State Guard commander Sterling Price at the beginning of the American Civil War....
which pledged that the state and federal forces would: maintain order in the parts of the state they controlled; protect the rights of all persons in their zones of control; and avoid any provocative acts. Price promised Harney that he would hold the state of the Union and if Confederate forces entered, he would fight them.
While MG Price's statement was probably simply a deception to buy time, it caused consternation in the Confederate capitol at Richmond. At that moment, envoys secretly dispatched by Governor Jackson, with Price's knowledge, were asking Confederate President Jefferson Davis to order an invasion to "liberate" Missouri. They had informed Davis that the Missouri State Guard would fight alongside the Confederate troops and drive the Federal forces from the state.
On May 30, Harney was relieved of command by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
after demands by Missouri Unionists who felt he was allowing Governor Jackson and General Price to build a secessionist army which would eventually march on, and capture, St. Louis, the main Unionist stronghold in the state.
On June 11, Lyon and Jackson met one last time, at the Planter's House hotel in St. Louis, to discuss the right of access to the interior of the state for Federal troops. Jackson demanded that Federal forces be limited to metropolitan St. Louis, and that pro-Unionist "Home Guard" companies in St Louis and elsewhere in the state be disbanded. Lyon responded that such a limitation on Federal authority "means war", and the meeting broke up. Jackson and General Price, who were in St. Louis on a safe conduct, immediately returned to Jefferson City, ordered the railroad bridges burned, and prepared for war. Lyon followed several days later, moving troops and artillery up the Missouri river by steamboat. He captured the state capitol without resistance, and routed the Missouri State Guard at the Battle of Boonville
Battle of Boonville
The First Battle of Boonville was a minor skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on June 17, 1861, near Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri. Although casualties were extremely light, the battle's strategic impact was far greater than one might assume from its limited nature...
on June 17, 1861. This action secured most of the key strategic parts of the state for the Federal Government, which would control those areas for the rest of the war.
Lyon pursued Governor Jackson and the State Guard down towards the Arkansas border. In August, with the enlistments of his Three Month regiments expiring and facing a combined force of 12,000 Missouri State Guard, Confederates and Arkansas State Troops, Lyon was forced to commit his 5,000 troops to a preemptive attack south of Springfield. The Battle of Wilson's Creek
Battle of Wilson's Creek
The Battle of Wilson's Creek, also known as the Battle of Oak Hills, was fought on August 10, 1861, near Springfield, Missouri, between Union forces and the Missouri State Guard, early in the American Civil War. It was the first major battle of the war west of the Mississippi River and is sometimes...
, often called the "Bull Run of the West" was a confused and bloody one. With a few exceptions, the troops on both sides fought hard and well, and in the end number told. General Lyon was killed leading a charge late in the day, and his successor, Major Schofield, concerned about low ammunition stocks withdrew towards Springfield. The exhausted southern army did not pursue.
A significant tactical victory for the Confederates, in the end Wilson's Creek was strategically barren. The Arkansas and Confederate troops withdrew across the border, leaving Sterling Price to "liberate" Missouri on his own. While Price went on to win several subsequent engagements, in the end he too had to withdraw, due to a lack of supplies.
The St. Louis Arsenal remained in Federal hands throughout the Civil War, and, with St. Louis firmly in Union control, provided substantial quantities of war materiel to the armies in the Western Theater
Western Theater of the American Civil War
This article presents an overview of major military and naval operations in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.-Theater of operations:...
.
Transfer to Jefferson Barracks
In March 1869, 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) of the old arsenal grounds were given to the City of St. Louis for the creation of Lyon Park, named for Lyon.In 1871 the arsenal was transferred to the better secured Jefferson Barracks. That complex was retained by the U.S. Army, with substantial peaks in weaponry and ammunitions storage and dispensing during World Wars I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1956, it was transferred to the U.S. Air Force.
21st century
The arsenal complex remains an active part of the military today, with much of it off limits to tourists and visitors. The Arsenal is maintained by the USAF and the Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
, housing a major branch of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States with the primary mission of collecting, analyzing and distributing geospatial intelligence in support of national security. NGA was formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency ...
.