Tyler Once Home To Civil War-Era Ordnance Works

Under the command of Col. George Hill, the facility grew to a full-blown compound, Betty wrote.

Production expanded from munitions and guns to saddles, canteens and other equipment vital to campaign success. Ultimately under Hill, the work done in Tyler would prove to be indispensible in fighting the Red River campaign.

The works were responsible for pouring more than 500,000 rounds into the rifles of Confederate troops during the campaign, which ended in Union defeat.

At the close of the war, Tyler Confederate sympathizers were concerned about what might happen to the munitions still stored in the facility as federal troops moved into the area. In the end, Capt. James Douglas and H.V. Hamilton were ordered to destroy the gunpowder and arms still stored in a 20-by-50 foot magazine, according to a Courier Times article published in October 1928.

“It was decided to a train of powder over a nearby hill and fire a rifle into the powder (train) and thus blow up or burn the powder,” the article reads. “They did not figure on the consequences that followed.”

And what followed was a spectacle which drew the entire city to the compound, or what was left of it.

“The lights (glass) in every window in Tyler were gone and so were the supplies that had been packed out of the arsenal,” the article stated. “And in place of these was a hole in the earth big enough to plant a battleship.”

Not everything was destroyed in the explosion completely. Today, the Smith County Historical Society houses an exhibit on the Tyler Ordinance Works, which includes Briscoe’s wooden tool chest and rifles like those made at the shop nearly a century and a half ago.

Unfortunately, what is missing from the collection is a Texas Tyler rifle, which has become a rarity.

In fact, Mary Jane McNamara who works at the museum’s office said one of the few remaining relics sold at a James D. Julia Firearms Auction in Maine earlier this year for $69,000.

All that marks the old facility is a plaque and stone now, but for many, such as Bidder 81, who won the rifle, the Tyler Ordnance Works blasting power reaches well into the 21st Century.

Updated Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 10:15 a.m. CDT