The Rock Island Arsenal comprises 946 acres (383 ha) and is located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. Rock Island was previously used as the summer camp site for Sauk Native Americans, and the dispute over tribal ownership led to the Black Hawk War of 1832, after the primary leader of the Sauk, Black Hawk. It is now home to the United States Army First Army Headquarters, and the United States Army Center of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing.
The island was originally established as a government site in 1816, with the building of Fort Armstrong. It is now the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the United States. It has manufactured military equipment and ordnance since the 1880s. In 1919–1920 one hundred of the Anglo-American or Liberty Mark VIII tanks were manufactured there, although too late for World War I. In 1988 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
Originally established as both an arsenal and a center for the manufacturing of leather accoutrements and field gear, today it provides manufacturing, logistics, and base support services for the United States Armed Forces. The Arsenal is the only active U.S. Army foundry, and manufactures ordnance and equipment, including artillery, gun mounts, recoil mechanisms, small arms, aircraft weapons sub-systems, grenade launchers, weapons simulators, and a host of associated components. Some of the Arsenal's most successful products include the M198 and M119 towed howitzers, and the M1A1 gun mount. About 250 military personnel and 6,000 civilians are currently employed there and the population from the 2020 census was a small 182 people.
History
From 1816-1862, the site was known as Fort Armstrong. Before that, Native Americans occupied it because of its strategic positioning along the Mississippi River. The United States came into possession of the island in 1804 in the Harrison Peace Treaty with the Chief of the Fox and Sac Tribes.[3] From 1804 to 1812 the island was unoccupied by the U.S. Army; however, it was the scene of a small conflict out the outbreak of the War of 1812 with Great Britain. Following that, in 1814 it was the site of a U.S. Army expedition from St Louis to use the island as a guard post to control traffic on the Mississippi and maintain watch over the local Native Americans.[3]
From the autobiography of Sauk Native American Black Hawk: "When we arrived we found that the troops had come to build a fort on Rock Island...We did not object, however, to their building their fort on the island, but were very sorry, as this was the best one on the Mississippi, and had long been the resort of our young people during the summer. It was our garden, like the white people have near their big villages, which supplied us with strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, plums, apples and nuts of different kinds."
The island facilities were converted and built in 1863; they were not yet completed in December of that year, when the first Confederate prisoners were incarcerated. The construction was makeshift. The first prisoners were 468 Confederates captured in battles at Chattanooga, Tennessee. That month more than 5,000 Confederates would swell the population of Rock Island military prison. They were kept in 84 barracks, each holding around 100 prisoners.[4] A total of 41 Confederate prisoners successfully escaped during the prison's operation, and many more would try but fail.[5][6]
A total of 1,964 Confederate prisoners and 125 Union guards are buried in the adjacent military cemetery, including 49 members of the 108th Regiment of United States Colored Troops, who served as guards. Most died from disease, since sanitation was primitive as in all army encampments, and exposure to heat and humidity during the summers and freezing temperatures during winters. In 1864, deadly smallpox epidemics rapidly spread through the prison.
The prison camp operated from December 1863 until July 1865, when the last prisoners were freed. After the war, the prison facility was completely destroyed. During its two years in operation, the prison camp housed a total of more than 12,400 Confederates.[5][6]
Other historical sites in the area include the Confederate Cemetery, the Rock Island National Cemetery, 19th-century stone workshops, officers' quarters along the river, Col. Davenport's House, and the site of the first railroad bridge built across the Mississippi. Following the war, the federal government retained ownership of Arsenal Island and developed it for use as an arsenal and ordnance manufacturing center, which led to its being renamed.
Womens History
During the first World War, demand for war materials drastically increased which resulted in a demand for skilled labor. Due to the draft of men, women had to fill the gap at the arsenal. This is often referred to as the women draft as they had to backfill the men leaving to fight in order to keep meet the demands of the war time efforts in the factories. Rock Island Arsenal increased from 175 female employees in 1914 to 300 in 1917, a drastic increase in the time before women’s suffrage.[7] Women were absolutely critical to the war time effort of World War I and Rock Island Arsenal was no exception.
1809: Declared a federal military reservation by an Act of Congress[8]
1816: Fort Armstrong built on the island
1818: George Davenport, U.S. Army sutler established trading post
1832: Served as U.S. Army HQ for Blackhawk War
1833: George Davenport mansion built
1836: Abandoned, but remained ordnance depot
1845: George Davenport killed by Banditti of the Prairie
1856: First railroad built across the Mississippi River
1862: Rock Island Arsenal (the name we know it to be today) established by an Act of Congress
1862: First Commanding Officer of Rock Island Major Charles P. Kingsbury.
1863-1865: Rock Island Prison Barracks existed for Confederate Soldiers
1865: Second Commanding Officer of Rock Island Arsenal, Brevet Brigadier General Thomas J. Rodman, also known as the Father of Rock Island Arsenal for his contributions
1867: Clock Tower Building erected, still standing and is the home of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
1871: First military quarters built on Rock Island, named, Quarters One, an Italianate villa. At 20,000 square feet it is one of the largest government single family residences in the United States
1872: First Government bridge built across the Mississippi River, replaced the railroad bridge destroyed by a steamboat
Rock Island Arsenal Museum
The Rock Island Arsenal Museum was established on July 4, 1905. It is the second-oldest US Army Museum in the US after the West Point Museum. The museum has been closed twice, during World War I and World War II, to provide more space for manufacturing facilities.
Exhibits interpret the history of Rock Island Arsenal and the Union prison camp during the American Civil War, and the site's role as a military industrial facility. The museum contains the second-largest collection of small arms weapons in the U.S. Army, and an outdoor vehicle display.
^"Rock Island Arsenal". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2006-02-13. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
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