U.S. Arsenal at Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
U.S. Arsenal. Authorized by Congress, 1836. Taken over by Confederacy, 1861. Destroyed March 1865, by Sherman. Ruins stand 2 blocks S.W.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Authorized by Congress in 1836, the U.S. Arsenal at Fayetteville was seized by the Confederacy in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War and became an important Southern munitions site. In March 1865, General Sherman's army destroyed it during the march that helped end the war, leaving ruins that still stand nearby. The arsenal's arc traces the whole span of the sectional conflict.
Why it matters
Federal arsenals captured by the Confederacy armed the rebellion, and their destruction by Sherman was a deliberate strategy to break the South's capacity to fight.
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Related people
- · William T. Sherman
Related events
- · Sherman's Carolinas Campaign, 1865
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Warren Winslow, Governor & Congressman
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Warren Winslow rose quickly through North Carolina politics, serving as acting governor in 1854 and then in Congress through the secession crisis. As the state joined the Confederacy in 1861, he helped negotiate the transfer of the U.S. Arsenal at Fayetteville into Southern hands—an act that would make the town a Confederate manufacturing center. He died in 1862, early in the war he had helped bring to his doorstep.
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