Revolutionary War Ammunition
How Catoctin Furnace Helped Supply the Continental Army
© Jim Rada
Oct 5, 2008
The land containing Catoctin Furnace was part of a 7,715-acre “Mountain Tract” obtained by Leonard Calvert and Thomas Johnson in 1768, but in 1774, Calvert transferred his interest to Thomas’ other brothers, James, Baker and Roger and the brothers formed James Johnson and Company with the intention on building an iron-smelting operation.
Building the furnace
The furnace was 32 feet high and surrounded by other needed equipment and machinery such as a waterwheel, mill pond and races, a coal house to store charcoal, the bridge and bridge house to charge the stack and a cast house.
This also became the beginnings of the community of Catoctin Furnace. The various jobs associated with running the furnace required men to do them. Miners dug the iron from the ground. Lumberers felled the trees and colliers prepared the charcoal from them. Fillers charged the furnace. Founders smelted the iron and cast it. And all of these people made their homes near the furnace.
The coal-fueled furnace went operational in the fall of 1775 in the midst of the Revolutionary War, which set the scene for the formation of the first major legend surrounding the furnace.
Supplying the Army
In the midst of its war for independence, the American government sought material to carry on the war. In 1776, “The Council of Safety wrote Colonel James Johnson in mid-July, inquiring as to his ability to supply 60 cannon, 40 swivels (smaller than regular cannon and mounted to swing on a pivot), and 200 iron pots. A week later, and without waiting for an answer to their first letter, they increased their ‘order’ to 175 cannon,” Frank Mentzer wrote in a 1972 series of articles in The Frederick News.
Thomas Johnson replied saying that his company could supply about 60 kettles and Dutch ovens with the expectation that more could be made within a short time. The Committee wasn’t interested in them.
As for the cannon, Johnson was doubtful of his ability to make them at Catoctin Furnace. Casting cannon required a specialized knowledge that the ironmasters at Catoctin Furnace didn’t have according to Mentzer. The molds were made of a special mix of sand and clay and using a similar technique as used for casting bells. The molds were then lowered into pits near the mouth of the furnace and earth was carefully packed around them. “Instead of filling the mold from the top, which could trap air and cause defects, a vertical runner was made to fill from the bottom, forcing the air out of the top.”
Cannonballs for the Army
There is no record of cannon being successfully cast at Catoctin Furnace, but the ammunition for the cannon the Continental Army did have…now, that’s a different story.
“Henry Knox, Washington’s Colonel Commandant of Artillery, noted in his 1781 inventory that they had on hand 950 ten-inch shells cast at Catoctin Furnace,” Mentzer wrote.
While the dates would have allowed those shells to be used at the decisive Battle of Yorktown as legend and the Maryland State Road Commission sign at the park notes, the only reference to this event is unverified letters the Johnson Brothers wrote.
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