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Clarke County Historical Markers
Cook & Brother Confederate Armory
- Source: Ed Jackson
- Marker: Cook & Brother Confederate Armory
- Location: Located in front of the former Chicopee Mill at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Pkwy. and First St. (East Broad St.)
COOK & BROTHER
CONFEDERATE ARMORY
To this building in 1862 was brought the machinery of the armory
established in New Orleans at the outbreak of the War by Ferdinand
W.C. and Francis L. Cook, recent English immigrants, the former a
skilled engineer for the manufacture of Enfield rifles, bayonets and
cavalry horse shoes. Said to be the largest and most efficient pri-
vate armory in the Confederacy. It produced a rifle declared by an
ordnance officer to be “superior to any that I have seen of South-
ern manufacture.” Under contract to supply 30,000 rifles to the
Confederate Army the armory operated until its employees, organized
as a reserve battalion under Major Ferdinand and Captain Francis Cook,
were in 1864 called to active duty upon the approach of Sherman’s
army. The battalion took part in the battles of Griswoldville, Grahamville, Honey Hill and Savannah where Major. Cook was killed.
After Grisoldville Gen. P.J. Phillips reported that Maj. Cook and his
men “participated fully in the action, deported themselves gallantly
and … . suffered much from wounds and death.” Leased by the Con-
federacy in 1865 the armory was operated until the close of the
War. The property was bought by the Athens Manufacturing Co. in 1870.
029-2 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1955