American Precision Museum

Arming the Union American Precision Museum

At the beginning of the Civil War, the U. S. Army was small, its weapons were largely outdated, and the North had just lost control of the arms-making facility at Harper's Ferry. And yet, over the next four years, Union troops would be furnished with 1.5 million rifles, and tens of thousands of carbines and pistols. How was it possible, in the early 1860s, to put that many weapons into the field in such a short time?Arming the Union tells the story of how a small town in Vermont provided the machinery that powered this arms build=up. Using newly-discovered documents in the archives at the American Precision museum, curator Carrie Brown discovered the inside story of the men and the machine tools that helped shape bth the conduct and the outcome of the war. This work by historian Carrie Brown served as the companion to an exhibit held at the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont. This is a simplified digital edition of the original print work published in 2012, optimized for e-readers.