Qualla: Augusta Arsenal: From Fever Refuge to College Campus

Augusta Arsenal: From Fever Refuge to College Campus: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Freeman Walker sold his summer estate for $6,000, minus one acre he kept for the family cemetery. That 1826 transaction turned the Belle Vue plantation in Augusta's Summerville neighborhood into a federal arsenal -- and set in motion two centuries of transformation that would see the same grounds serve as a military fortification, a Confederate munitions complex, a World War II supply depot, and finally a university campus. The Augusta Arsenal's story is not one of a single purpose, but of a place that kept reinventing itself as the nation's needs changed around it.

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Augusta Arsenal: From Fever Refuge to College Campus: Belle Vue's Second Life

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. The Augusta Arsenal was originally established in 1816, with its first buildings completed on the Georgia bank of the Savannah River by 1819. But deadly fever epidemics forced a rethinking. Soldiers were dying -- over 100 troops from Cantonment Oglethorpe near Savannah had perish...

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Augusta Arsenal: From Fever Refuge to College Campus: The Confederacy's Workshop

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AugustaGALiving from Evans, GA, USA, CC BY 2.0. When the Civil War began, Confederate Chief of Ordnance Josiah Gorgas recognized Augusta's potential. By summer 1861, he laid plans to build a 'great arsenal of construction where ammunition, field and siege artillery projectiles and ordnance stores in general would be made in la...

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Image: AugustaGALiving from Evans, GA, USA | CC BY 2.0

Augusta Arsenal: From Fever Refuge to College Campus: Wars and Workers

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The arsenal proved its value again during the Spanish-American War, manufacturing equipment and serving as a supply and repair depot. During World War I, it became a center for small arms repair. But it was World War II that truly transformed the site. Roughly fifty new buildings...

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Augusta Arsenal: From Fever Refuge to College Campus: Swords into Diplomas

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Heather Hopkins from Augusta, GA, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1955, the military closed the Augusta Arsenal for good. Most of the property was transferred to the Georgia Board of Education, and in 1957 it reopened as the Junior College of Augusta. The name changed to Augusta College in 1958, then Augusta State University. The campus reta...

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Image: Heather Hopkins from Augusta, GA, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0