The Augusta Arsenal was originally constructed near the end of the second decade of the nineteenth century on a site adjacent to the Savannah River just above the city of Augusta. This proved to be an unhealthy location and not long after the arsenal was occupied in 1819, nearly all the members of the garrison died in a fever epidemic.  

Due to this event the government eventually decided to relocate the facility in a healthier environment and in November 1826 a tract of approximately 70 acres was purchased for this purpose by the Arsenal's first commandant, Capt M. M. Payne, from Freeman Walker. 

The Walker tract, or "Bellevue tract", today the site of the campus of Augusta State University, is located to the west of Augusta's early nineteenth century outskirts on a low sandy hill.  Since the early 19th century, this area has been known as Summerville.  During 1827 and 1828 the Arsenal buildings were dismantled and the materials were transported to the new locale where it was reconstructed. 

 

 An Augusta volunteer unit, the Clinch Rifles, are shown in this woodcut from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (March 1861) on parade in front of the Augusta Arsenal quadrangle.  The building on the left is the commandant's quarters, junior officers quarters are on the right while the center building is the 'arsenal' or storehouse building.  On the west side of the Arsenal quadrangle stood the enlisted men's barracks (on the opposite side of the quad to the rear of these buildings - see 1875 map below). 

All of these structures survive as administrative facilities for Augusta State University, a unit of the University System of Georgia. The Augusta Arsenal site has been officially designated as site number 9-Ri-1045 in the Georgia State Site files in Athens. 

An early 20th century photograph of the main Arsenal storage building

Until the Civil War the Arsenal functioned as a part of the U.S. military establishment, however, during the War, it was occupied by Confederate forces for the duration of the conflict. The Arsenal, along with the Confederate Powder Works, and other facilities in the city, made a major contribution to the war effort of the southern states by providing weapons and munitions to the Confederate forces. 

During the Civil War, the Confederate government constructed a variety of facilities in the Augusta area to advance their capacity to wage the war.  The Confederate Powder Works, which incorporated the tract of land on which the Augusta Arsenal had been located before being moved to the hill site in 1827-28, made a major contribution to the war effort.  At the Arsenal itself, a large (over 500 feet long) production shop building was erected near the eastern boundary of the post during 1861, the first year of the war. 

The 1861 shop building served a variety of functions during that war and was retained later when federal troops reoccupied the Arsenal at the end of the Civil War.  It was in use until the closure of the Arsenal in the mid-1950s.  The location of the original quadrangle buildings (moved to the hill site in the 1820s) and the 1861 Confederate shop building are shown on the map below which dates to ten years after the end of the Civil War.