Lucy Selina Furnace

Lucy Selina Furnace. Alleghany Iron for the Confederacy. , You are standing near the site of the Lucy Selina Furnace, which supplied the Confederacy with pig iron for the production of cannons, munitions, and rails during the Civil War. In 1827, two Scots-Irishmen, Col. John Jordan and John Irvine, built this charcoal-fired, cold-blast furnace on Simpson’s Creek and named it after their wives, Lucy Jordan and Selina Irvine. The furnace remained in operation until 1852, when the new hot-blast furnace technology and the high cost of using charcoal instead of bituminous coal made it uneconomical to operate., The outbreak of the Civil War changed everything. The supply of iron from Northern furnaces was suspended, and the Confederacy became desperate for iron. Lucy Selina Furnace reopened in 1863 and sold pig iron to the Confederate States Nitre and Mining Bureau. Like nearby Australia Furnace, a hot-blast operation, Lucy Selina’s pig iron supplied Richmond’s Tredegar Iron Works, “Ironmaker to the Confederacy.” Union raiders threatened both Alleghany furnaces in 1862 and 1864, but unlike some Virginia ironworks, they escaped destruction. Because many white ironworkers left for the Confederate armed forces, slave labor kept the furnaces operating. Work here was extremely arduous, and food supplies were scarce, which encouraged many slaves to flee. Iron production never lived up to expectations. , After the war, William Firmstone bought Lucy Selina in May 1870 and converted it to a coke (processed bituminous coal) furnace as part of the Longdale Furnace Company. Nothing remains of Lucy Selina Furnace, but the Longdale Furnace ruins are still standing today a few hundred yards west of here. , (sidebar) , For visitor information please contact the Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Tourism at 540-962-2178 or visit our website at www.visitalleghanyhighlands.com. The Visitors Center is located at 110 Mall Road, Covington, VA. , (captions) , Lucy Selina Furnace, ca. 1890 Courtesy Alleghany County Historical Society , Lucy Selina Furnace, 1872 - Courtesy National Park Service , Longdale Furnace, ca. 1890 - Firmstone Bed and Breakfast , Longdale Furnace ruins, 2013 - Courtesy John Strott