In 1783, the U.S. Secretary of War, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, stated to Congress that “It would be idle for a people to talk of Independence who were indebted for the means of their existence to any nation on earth.”  Thus, to secure our newly-won independence, he ordered construction of a national brass ordnance foundry, the first of its kind, at Springfield Arsenal, to produce the Nation’s field artillery.  And General Washington, along with Brig. Gen. Knox, welcomed it as the realization of their efforts since early 1777.

This production of field guns at Springfield pioneered government-funded efforts that set the pattern for musket production hardly a decade later at Springfield Armory as the industrial revolution took hold in America. Over the next two decades, Springfield provided the bulk of the United States Army’s bronze field pieces until supplanted by private contractors in the early 19th Century. 

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