int of excellence has required the skill and
perseverance of the best mechanical minds which this country--always
prolific in inventive genius--has produced during a period of more than
half a century. It would be impossible to estimate the value of these
works during the existence of the present Rebellion; but some idea may
be formed of their usefulness from the fact that twenty-five thousand
rifled muskets of the most approved pattern are manufactured at this
establishment every month, and the number will soon be increased to
thirty thousand. There are at the present time one hundred and
seventy-five thousand of these muskets in the arsenal, awaiting the
orders of the War Department, and the works are daily turning out enough
to arm an entire regiment.

When the Rebels fired upon Fort Sumter, the armory was making about one
thousand muskets per month, and three months afterwards the increase
amounted only to three thousand, so little preparation had been made by
the Government of Mr. Buchanan to meet the great struggle which Southern
demagogues were precipitating upon us. Indeed, the number of muskets
manufactured during the last year of his administration was less by
several thousand than these works turned out during the year 1815;
while, during this same period, the residents of streets leading to the
railway-station witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a daily
procession of wagons laden with boxes of Government arms on their way to
Southern arsenals!

Twenty-six hundred workmen are now constantly employed,--the
establishment being run day and night,--and none but the most expert and
industrious artisans are to be found among them.

The original site of this armory was occupied during the Revolution as a
military recruiting-post, afterwards as a depot for military stores, and
then as a place for repairing arms. The first shops were on Main Street,
and among them was a laboratory for cartridges and various kinds of
fireworks. The oldest record in the armory relates to the work done in
this laboratory during the month of April, 1778, showing that about
forty men were then engaged in the business. Not far from the date of
this document the works were removed to the hill, where, enlarged and
perfected, they are legitimately the object of admiration and pride. The
act establishing the armory was passed by Congress in April, 1794.

The arsenal, storehouse, offices, and principal manufacturing buildings
are situat