Confederate Navy Yard

In the record (14)

1. 1862

   A Navy Yard employee named Thomas Dwyer invented machinery capable of manufacturing perfectly spherical cannonballs at the Charlotte facility.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Thomas Dwyer

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

2. 1862

   By 1862 the Charlotte Navy Yard employed roughly 1,500 men and boys, drawn from both Mecklenburg County and the relocated Norfolk workforce, though its core of experienced skilled workers transferred directly from the Gosport Yard numbered about 51.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

3. 1862

   Captain Richard L. Page served as commandant of the Charlotte Navy Yard station, headquartered at the former U.S. Branch Mint building on West Trade Street (which the Confederacy had seized in 1861 when coining operations ceased), while H. Ashton Ramsay served as chief engineer overseeing the naval works.

   First United States Branch Mint (site)Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Richard L. PageH. Ashton Ramsay

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

4. 1862

   In May 1862 the Confederacy relocated its principal naval ordnance works from the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk/Portsmouth, Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina, after the loss of the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) and the threatened Union capture of Norfolk made continued operation there unsafe.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

5. 1862

   The Charlotte Confederate States Navy Yard occupied a site at the southwest corner of East Trade and College Streets, near the North Carolina Railroad tracks, and operated from 1862 until the Confederate government's final collapse in 1865 — a distinction noted on its historical marker as the only Confederate navy yard ever built more than 100 miles from navigable water.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government CenterCharlotte and South Carolina RailroadNorth Carolina RailroadElizabeth College

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

6. 1862

   The Charlotte Navy Yard built a gun-carriage shop, a torpedo shop, and a large forge shop housing the largest steam hammer in the South, and its buildings produced marine engines, rifles, solid shot, shells, torpedoes, gun carriages, anchors, and heavy iron forgings for the Confederate navy.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

7. 1862

   The Charlotte Navy Yard's historical marker also names Captain Catesby ap R. Jones among its commanding officers, alongside Captain Richard L. Page and Chief Engineer H. Ashton Ramsey.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Richard L. PageJ.A. JonesCatesby ap R. Jones

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

8. 1863

   A Confederate medical laboratory in nearby Lincolnton, directed by chemist Dr. Aaron Snowden Piggott and operating from summer 1863 until its capture by Union forces on April 27, 1865, worked closely with the Confederate Navy Yard at Charlotte and received equipment from the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte as part of the region's wartime medical-supply production.

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)North Carolina Military InstituteAaron Snowden Piggott

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

9. 1863

   The Charlotte Navy Yard machined propeller shafting for Confederate ironclads including the Virginia No. II, Albemarle, Tennessee, and the Mobile-station ironclads, leading one period account to state that 'none of the vessels could have been constructed had it not been for the works at Charlotte.'

   Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)

   Source · checked 2026-08-13

10. 1863

    The Navy Department described the Charlotte Navy Yard as one of the Confederate navy's most important manufacturing centers, and beginning around June 1863 the yard became responsible for casting all of the shot and shell used by Confederate naval vessels defending Charleston and Savannah, including specialized wrought-iron shot designed to pierce Union ironclads.

    Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

11. 1864

    In late 1864, as Union General George Stoneman's cavalry threatened the region, Navy Yard equipment was removed from Charlotte and shipped to Lincolnton for safekeeping; the war ended before the machinery could be reassembled and put back into operation there.

    Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)King GeorgeGeorge Stoneman

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

12. 1865

    According to the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the Navy Yard's original property owner, Colonel John Wilkes, reclaimed the land in 1865 and established the Mecklenburg Iron Works there, which he operated until 1875.

    Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Jane Renwick Smedberg WilkesJohn Wilkes

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

13. 1865 · 1865-05-07

    Federal troops formally seized the abandoned Confederate Navy Yard site in Charlotte on May 7, 1865, following the collapse of the Confederate government.

    Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

14. 1866 · 1866-12-01

    The Charlotte Museum of History states that John Wilkes repurchased the former Navy Yard property in December 1866 and operated an iron works there until relocating operations to West Trade Street in 1875 — a later repurchase date than the NC DNCR's 1865 account.

    Confederate Navy Yard / Mecklenburg Iron Works (site)Mint Museum of ArtLevine Museum of the New SouthHarvey B. Gantt CenterNASCAR Hall of FameJane Renwick Smedberg WilkesJohn Wilkes

    Source · checked 2026-08-13