Visit ironworks in richmond that served as the main artillery manufacturer for the confederacy during the civil war. It was an iron foundry that operated on the bank the james river from 1837 to 1957. Its greatest claim to fame was the chief armor, to the confederacy during the civil war producing a large majority of the cannons used by the confederacy. Richmond had a lot of infrastructure that no longer exists from battlefield hospitals to the battlefield themselves. Fewironworks is one of the remaining structures that existed before the civil war, played a. His history dates to the 1800s and southeastern wales in the united kingdom. There was an ironworks that was the main supplier of iron for the British Industrial revolution era when richmond businessman wanted to begin an ironworks here they contacted engineers and millwrights to come over here and design their mills and ironworks here. Francis dean, who started tredegar, had a good amount of imagination but not a good businessman. The company was running into financial trouble. They hired Joseph Anderson, a native of the county, a west point graduate and an engineer. He was brought in initially in 1841 as a purchasing agent, a Sales Manager but also running a lot of their financial books. Within a couple of years he actually started to lease the entire operation from the stockholders. In 1849 he purchased the site outright and became the sole proprietor. When tredegar first started, present was a small industrial town. It had some industry, tredegar but as grew but as tredegar group, richmond group. By 1860 tredegar was the thirdlargest ironworks in united states, the largest in the south and richmond with the Industrial Hub of lower become the southern confederacy. The primary workhorse was a lot of welshman who came over. That was the nucleus of their skilled workforce. Another side was the industrial slaves. Sometimes the owners of tredegar would purchase slaves and their names, sometimes it would rent them from other slaveowners, and sometimes the company has a corporate entity would own their own slaves. You have foreigners as far as watchmen and irishmen working here alongside native born american whites and enslaved africanamericans. In a lot of ways tredegar was a family operation. Everything from the owners of the site, the Anderson Family was in ownership from 1849 up until the civil war when it became a company on by stockholders again. 1892, hisrson died in son archer took over. He died in 1918. His son took over. Tredegar the stockholders of tredegar into purchasing the equipment needed to reduce cannons. They started producing cannons for both state governments and the federal government. 1850 1865from produced approximately 40 locomotives in the tredegar locomotive shops. By 1860, tredegar was a largest ironworks in the southern states. It was the largest employer in the richmond area. Richmond was the Industrial Hub of the southern states. That was one of the reasons why the confederate government relocated their capital from a gum rate to Richmond Montgomery to richmond. When the civil war actually started, initially Joseph Anderson offered the confederate government to buy tredegar outright. They wanted him to still run it because they saw him as a capable manager. It is largely switched over to a wartime production of canonry and shot and shell than anything the southern railroads needed for the infrastructure to keep the war effort going. Tredegar face several challenges during the war to carry on their operations successfully. For one case you had a lot of skilled workers drafted into the Confederate Army that was hurting production. Another problem was as the union advanced, a lot of the routes tredegar was able to keep her materials and supplies were quickly dwindling. Early on they lost a good source of tin and copper to make bronze cannons. For most of the war they were producing cast iron cannons. Tredegars ability to ship its product out was affected by the advances in the union army as far as territory. Some parts of the canal, they were able to ship supplies down the canal. The southern railroads were a major link to the other southern states. As the union advanced, they blew up parts of the canal, parts of the railroad. Tredegars ability to get weaponry and supplies to other states fighting the civil war was dwindling and dwindling as time went on. In march of 1865, tredegar essentially ceased operations as far as making cannonry because they ran out of supplies. In april, when the evacuation fire was raging tredegar was spared. Destruction some windows were blown out when a nearby manufacturer of arms exploded. Tredegar and its machinery was able to resume operations immediately after the war ended. When the union army came in the richmond they occupied tredegar iron works. Joseph Reed Anderson and his amily, his sons and uncle, lot of other family members were working as well and they had a receive pardons from Andrew Johnson at the time in order to get clemency from their activities during the civil war, but also to gain ownership of tredegar. Josephsummer of 1865, anderson and his family were granted their pardons and tredegar was given back to them. Tredegar was able to pick up operations pretty much for the left off. They had to repair equipment, bring in new equipment because during the war they were not able to order more northern advanced equipment. There was some retooling of things. Joseph anderson was able to get Northern Investors to invest in the operation. Tredegar was able to get back into operation quickly. They never produced cannons after the civil war. Between 1865 and 1873 there was a railroad boom. Tredegar became eventually one of the main suppliers of the Railroad Industry at the time, producing railroad spikes, cartwheels, and Railroad Cars themselves. In their heyday, the turnofthecentury, 1890 to 1910, the entire complex span around 23 acres. That included a number of hine shops, or she shops, horse shoe shops. They had everything from a bronze foundry, several hammer and steam forges, several foundries and several sheds to store a lot of their excess materials they were waiting to ship out because there was such a demand for what they were making. As the 20th century advanced, tredegar was making railroad equipment. Wheels, railroad spikes. They were not making cannons, but in 1898 this started making mediations for the American Government with the onset of the spanishamerican war. That continued