The Harpers Ferry Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, was the second federal armory created by the United States government; the first was the Springfield Armory. It was located in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which since 1863 has been part of West Virginia. It was both an arsenal, manufacturing firearms, and an armory, a storehouse for firearms. Along with the Springfield Armory, it was instrumental in the development of machining techniques to make interchangeable parts of precisely the same dimensions.
Harpers Ferry Armory in 1862
Gun smithing equipment on display at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
The burning of the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, 10 P.M. April 18, 1861, sketched by D. H. Strother.
Harpers Ferry in 1865, looking east (downstream); the ruins of the musket factory can be seen in the center
The Springfield Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Springfield located in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, was the primary center for the manufacture of United States military firearms from 1777 until its closing in 1968. It was the first federal armory and one of the first factories in the United States dedicated to the manufacture of weapons. The site is preserved as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Western Massachusetts' only unit of the national park system. It features the world's largest collection of historic American firearms.
The clocktower of the Main Arsenal building, built in 1847
Shays' rebel forces, attempting to overtake the armory, flee from the state militia as grape shot is fired from artillery
Conflagration of Part of the US Armory, Springfield, Mass. March 2nd, 1824
An "Organ of Muskets", in total the racks in the arsenal contain 647 Model 1861 rifles, with capacity to hold 1,100 when fully stocked; these racks are so-called "organs" as they were described as such in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's lamentations against the wastes of war in his poem "The Arsenal at Springfield"
