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The Southern Armories and Superintendent Burton

The word “beleaguered” had not been heard. Riding high on a wave of patriotic ardor, Southern forces were triumphing wherever they clashed with the Federals. Brash Southrons proclaimed they would “whip the Yankee’s with cornstalks,” but after Virginia’s legislature passed the Ordinance of Secession on April 18, the state authorities acted on somewhat more responsible measures to ensure production of weapons. Capture of the United States’ Arsenal and Hall’s Rifle Works at Harpers Ferry was ordered.

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