Springfield Armory [REPACK]
Springfield Armory (1777-1968) - A patriot arsenal and armory established in 1777 during the Revolutionary War on a site selected by General Henry Knox in present day Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. Closed in 1968. Also known as Springfield Arsenal and as The Arsenal at Springfield.
springfield armory
In 1786 Daniel Shays and 300 insurgents captured the Springfield courthouse and attempted to capture the Springfield Armory during Shays Rebellion. The attack took place on 26 Jan 1787 with the arsenal being defended by a militia force of about 1200. The defenders first fired warning shots and then fired cannons loaded with grapeshot into attackers. Shays men were driven back and the armory was saved. The insurrection was put down later in 1787.
The armory moved from just the storage of weapons and ammunition to the manufacturer of both. In the early 1800s, they pioneered mass production techniques for firearms including the wooden stocks. By 1843 it was reported that the Springfield Armory had some 1,000,000 finished guns stacked vertically in open racks.
With the loss of the Harpers Ferry Arsenal and Armory and the other southern arsenals at the beginning of the U.S. Civil War, the Springfield Armory was the only manufacturer of arms until the federal armory system was rebuilt.
In 1968 the closure of the armory was announced. Portions of the site were sold off but the core of the armory became the Springfield Armory National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service.
Starting in the late 1950s, the AR-15 (later renamed the M16) was being tested, and by the early 1960s it started replacing the M14. The new gun had many synthetic parts, and it would have been too expensive to re-tool the Springfield Armory to make them, so the military determined that it could obtain the gun cheaper from private manufacturers (Colt got the contract). Convinced that the outsourcing of weapons was the future, the federal government closed the armory for good in 1968. Most of the buildings were immediately re-purposed for use by Springfield Technical Community College.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Warriors and their families toured the Springfield Armory National Historic Site during a recent Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) outing. This armory consistently supplied our armed forces from 1794 until 1964.
At Springfield Armory National Historic Site, you can tour the largest collection of shoulder arms outside Britain, and see how these weapons were made at the armory that supplied the U.S. military for 174 years.
Shays Rebellion attacked the Armory, but was unsuccessful, as the state militia was able to defend it from attack using grapeshot. The Armory started producing ordnance in 1793, which included everything from paper cartridges and musket balls all the way up to howitzers. Flash forward to the post-Civil War period, and for a brief time this was the only federal armory in operation after the destruction of Harpers Ferry. It produced the first firearm native to America, the Model 1795, a .69 caliber flintlock musket. 041b061a72