The Carlisle Forge

The Carlisle Forge. The Forge at Washingtonburg. , This building is a representation of the forge that stood at Washingtonburg, site of present day Carlisle Barracks, during the American Revolution. Our working forge features a replica of a bellows that is purported to be the original bellows of the Carlisle Forge, part of AHEC’s collection., The original forge was part of the “Public Works at Carlisle,” a government arsenal authorized by the Continental Congress in December 1776 to provide the Continental Army with much needed arms, ammunition and other supplies. The forge was used to create and repair weapons for the Army., General George Washington directed Colonel Benjamin Flower to establish the arsenal at Carlisle in January 1777. Col. Flower was ordered to “…erect or provide such buildings as shall be necessary for carrying on the preparation of fixed ammunition of every specie. An air furnace to be erected there to hold three thousand weights of fluxed metal. A mill for the purpose of boring cannon, etc. after they are cast. Shops sufficient for forty carpenters, forty blacksmiths, and twenty wheelwrights. Turners, tinmen, in proportion to the demand of the laboratory shall have for them. Also twelve harness makers to make spare harnesses single and double.” [as quoted in Tousey’s Military History of Carlisle and Carlisle Barracks, page 79]