- Tredegar Iron Works
Infobox_nrhp | name =Tredegar Iron Works
nrhp_type = nhld
caption = "Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia, USA, photograph by Alexander Gardener"
location=Richmond, Virginia
lat_degrees = 37
lat_minutes = 32
lat_seconds = 8
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 77
long_minutes = 26
long_seconds = 43
long_direction = W
locmapin = Virginia
area =
built =1841
architect= Davis,Reev; Et al.
architecture= No Style Listed
designated=December 22 ,1977 cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1186&ResourceType=District
title=Tredegar Iron Works|accessdate=2008-06-27|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added =July 02 ,1971
governing_body = Private
refnum=71001048cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]Tredegar Iron Works is an historic iron foundry in
Richmond, Virginia ,United States of America . The site is now the location of a museum called The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar."Founding" and management under Davies (1833-1838)
The foundry was named in honor of the town of
Tredegar ,Wales ,United Kingdom , where iron works of the same name were constructed in the early1800 s, and which was also the hometown of Rhys Davies, the man originally in charge of constructing the facility. In1833 , a group of Richmond businessmen and industrialists hired Davies, then a young engineer, along with a number of fellow iron workers from the Welsh valley town, to construct the furnaces and rolling mills that later became the Tredegar Iron Works and Belle Isle Iron Works.Rhys Davies died in Richmond in September
1838 as a result of stab wounds received in a fight with a workman and was buried on Belle Isle in the James River.Management under Joseph Reid Anderson (1841-Civil War)
In
1841 , the owners turned management over to a 28-year-oldcivil engineer named Joseph Reid Anderson who proved to be an able manager. Anderson acquired ownership of the foundry1848 and was soon doing work for the United States government, and began introducingslave labor to cut production costs — by the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, half of the 900 workers were slaves, including many in skilled positions. [http://srnels.people.wm.edu/antrichf95/bumgard.html] The commissioning of 900 miles ofrailroad track in Virginia, largely financed by theVirginia Board of Public Works between 1846 and 1853, offered a market insteam locomotive s and rail stock.One of those attributed with starting the Tredegar Locomotive Works with John Souther was Zerah Colburn, the well-known locomotive engineer and journalist. By
1860 , Anderson's father-in-law Dr.Robert Archer had joined the business and Tredegar became a leadingiron producer in the country. The company produced about 70steam locomotives between 1850 and 1860. From 1852 to 1854,John Souther also managed the locomotive shop at Tredegar. Its locomotive production work is sometimes listed with combinations of the names Anderson, Souther, Delaney, and Pickering.Prior to the Civil War, industry expanded at the Tredegar site under Anderson's direction to include a new flour mill on land leased to Lewis D. Crenshaw and a stove works on land leased to A.J. Bowers and Asa Snyder. [ [http://vip.lib.virginia.edu:8080/cocoon/vivaead/published/lva/vi00494.bioghist "A Guide to the Tredegar Iron Works Records, 1801-1957"] ] By 1860, Crenshaw and Co. had established the Crenshaw Woolen Mill on adjoining land they owned. This enterprise employed more than 50 people. [ [http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Dispatch/1860/richmond_dispatch_10311860a.htm Richmond Dispatch, 10/31/1860, p. 1, c. 6.] ] The Crenshaw Woolen Mill became "the principal source of supply for the
[ Confederate] Army's requirements of uniform material" during the first half of the Civil War. ["Captain William G[ raves] Crenshaw, C.S.A., The War Years," William G. Crenshaw III, Virginia State Library, Richmond, VA, Archives #25261.] AMay 16, 1863 fire on the Tredegar/Crenshaw site damaged the mill, which was not rebuilt, and Tredegar purchased the land from Crenshaw and Co. by 1863. [http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Dispatch/1863/richmond_dispatch_5161863.htm Richmond Dispatch, Saturday Morning, 5/16/1863, p. 1.] [http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Examiner/1863/richmond_examiner_741863.htm Richmond Examiner, 7/4/1863.] [http://www.mdgorman.com/Written_Accounts/Sentinel/1863/richmond_sentinel_12171863a.htm Richmond Sentinel, 12/17/1863, p. 1, c. 2.]Tredegar Iron Works supplied high-quality munitions to the South during the war. The company also manufactured
railroad steam locomotives in the same period.
*Tredegar Iron Works made theiron plating for the first Confederateironclad warship , the CSS "Virginia" which fought in the historicBattle of Hampton Roads in March 1862.
*Tredegar is also credited with the production of approximately 1,100 artillery pieces during the war which was about half of the South's total domestic production of artillery between the war years of 1861-1865.
*Tredegar also produced a giant rail-mounted siege cannon during the conflict.As the war continued with more and more men conscripted into the Confederate armies, Tredegar experienced a lack of skilled laborers. Scarce supplies of metal also hurt the company's manufacturing abilities during the war and as the conflict progressed it was noticed that Tredegar's products were beginning to lose quality as well as quantity. In the summer of 1861, after the beginning of the Civil War, the initial quantity of metal was so scarce that the iron works failed to produce a single piece of artillery for an entire month.
Anderson was a strong supporter of southern secession and became a Brigadier General in the
Confederate Army as theAmerican Civil War broke out. He was wounded at Glendale during theSeven Days Battles of thePeninsula Campaign in1862 and served in the Ordnance Department for the duration of the Civil War.Tredegar survives the evacuation of Richmond
During the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederates on the night of
April 2 -3,1865 , the retreating troops were under orders to burn many of the munitions dumps and industrial warehouses that would have been valuable to the North. Joseph Anderson, the owner of the Tredegar Iron Works, reportedly paid over 50 armed guards to protect the facility from arsonists. As a result, the Tredegar Iron Works is one of few Civil War-era buildings that survived the burning of Richmond.At the outset of hostilities, Anderson had wisely secured Tredegar assets overseas for the duration of the Civil War and, therefore, was able to restore his business when the Confederate currency collapsed. He petitioned U.S. President
Andrew Johnson for a pardon for himself and Tredegar and was back in business before the end of 1865, regaining full ownership in1867 .Reconstruction Era
By
1873 , Tredegar Iron Works was employing 1,200 workers and was a profitable business. The neighborhood ofOregon Hill cropped up as acompany town -like development.When Joseph Anderson died on a vacation in New Hampshire in 1892, he was succeeded by his son Colonel
Archer Anderson . The Tredegar company remained in business throughout the first half of the 20th century, and supplied requirements of the armed forces of the United States duringWorld War I andWorld War II . It was destroyed by fire in1952 .Post-Industrial uses
The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar
In the 1990s, the Tredegar Iron works was host to the short lived "Valentine on the James" extension of the
Valentine Richmond History Center . The idea of a museum on the site was later revived and on Saturday, October 7, 2006, [http://www.tredegar.org The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar] opened to the public.James M. McPherson described the museum as "a truly comprehensive exhibit and education center weaving together Union, Confederate, and African-American threads ... much needed for future generations to understand how the Civil War shaped the nation." The Center contains interactive theaters, plasma-screen maps, and artifacts. The museum's exhibits were put together by an eminent team of historians includingJames M. McPherson of Princeton, Bill Cooper of Louisiana State University, John Fleming of the Cincinnati Museum Center, Charles Dew of Williams College,David W. Blight of Yale, and Emory Thomas at the University of Georgia.Lincoln statue
In
2000 , the former Tredegar Iron Works facility overlooking the James River near downtown Richmond became the site of the main Visitor's Center of theRichmond National Battlefield Park . In April2003 , a statue was dedicated there to commemorateAbraham Lincoln 's historic 1865 tour of the burnt-out city 10 days before his assassination. Dignitaries at the installation ceremony includedDouglas Wilder , former Mayor and Lt. GovernorTim Kaine , Mayor Rudy McCollum, and former governorGerald L. Baliles .Protesting the event were
Sons of Confederate Veterans including Brag Bowling, Virginia SCV Commander; Fred Tayor, president of theHeritage Preservation Association ; and Elliott Germain, chairmanVirginia League of the South .Fiction
In
Harry Turtledove 's "Timeline-191 "alternate history series, in which the South wins the Civil War, the Confederate Army's standardrifle is called Tredegar, presumably after the Iron Works.References
External links
* [http://www.tredegar.org The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar]
* [http://www.nps.gov/rich/index.htm National Parks Service, Richmond National Battlefield Park]
* [http://www.nps.gov/rich/spr00p6.html National Parks Service, Introduction to Tredegar Iron Works]
* [http://www.mdgorman.com/Written%20Accounts/Enquirer/1861/richmond_enquirer_9281861.htm "Richmond Enquirer" newspaper article (28 September 1861) about the foundry]
* [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/tredegar/trediron.htm Detailed history of the foundry by B. Gardner]
* [http://www.csa-railroads.com/Essays/Builders%20Of%20Confederate%20Locomotives.htm Confederate Railroads website]
* [http://www.wclathan.com/Tredegar/Tredegar-Iron-Works.html Photos]
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