Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Revolution's Arsenal on the Frontier

Long before the first shots rang out at Lexington and Concord, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, had established itself as a place where the colonial world met the wilderness. Situated in the Cumberland Valley, roughly 120 miles west of Philadelphia, the town occupied a peculiar and powerful position in the geography of revolution: close enough to the political centers of power to matter, far enough west to serve as a gateway to the frontier. When war came, Carlisle would become an indispensable nerve center of the American cause — a depot for arms and supplies, a staging ground for military expeditions, a prison for captured enemies, and the home of some of the most consequential figures of the revolutionary generation. Its story is not the story of a single dramatic battle but of the sustained, unglamorous, and absolutely essential work that made independence possible.

Even before the war began, Carlisle was a place where the spirit of resistance found its voice. The First Presbyterian Church, begun in 1757 and completed in 1770 — the oldest building in Carlisle — was where Pennsylvania settlers met on July 12, 1774, to sign a document protesting the Boston Port Act.

It was also where the Rev. John Steel, known as "The Fighting Parson," gave sermons in support of the Patriot cause during the American Revolution. Steel was no mere pulpit orator; he served as Captain under the expedition of Armstrong at Kittanning during the French and Indian War and was Captain and Chaplain in the Revolutionary War. The town also produced James Wilson, a Scottish immigrant who had set up a law practice in Carlisle and became one of the leading intellectual architects of American independence. In 1774, Wilson attended a provincial meeting as a representative of Carlisle, was elected a member of the local Committee of Correspondence, and wrote a pamphlet arguing that Parliament had no authority to pass laws for the colonies.

Wilson was one of only six individuals to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

A leading legal theorist, he was one of the first four Associate Justices appointed to the Supreme Court by George Washington. That a town on the edge of the frontier could produce a figure of Wilson's caliber speaks to the intellectual ferment that permeated Carlisle in the revolutionary era.

Carlisle's revolutionary spirit was not confined to its churches and law offices. In 1774, Ephraim Blaine — an Irish-born merchant who had settled in the area — was chosen as a member of the county's Committee for Observation, formed to address concerns with the royal government. Blaine would go on to play a role in the war effort that rivaled anyone's in town. In 1776, he was named chief commissary officer of the newly formed 8th Pennsylvania Regiment, and Washington soon appointed him commissary of purchases for the northern department of the Continental Army.

In that position, Blaine helped to feed the army that wintered at Valley Forge in 1777–1778.

As commissary-general, Blaine traveled throughout the colonies to arrange food deliveries for the army, often having to advance his own money for payment.

Tiny Carlisle, with perhaps half a hundred males of fighting age, contributed no fewer than eight colonels or generals to the War of the Revolution — and one historian has argued that none of these, from Armstrong to Watts, made quite the contribution to victory that Ephraim Blaine did.

When the fighting began in earnest, Carlisle was among the first communities in Pennsylvania to send men into the field. As early as June 1775, local citizens who favored independence had organized a militia and sent troops under Colonel William Thompson to Boston, where Washington was forming the Continental Army.

Thompson's Rifle Battalion was the first battalion in the colonies authorized by Congress, in June 1775, totaling nine companies initially led by Colonel William Thompson of Carlisle.

In 1775, Thompson accepted a commission to serve as the first Colonel in the Army of the United Colonies, later the Continental Army, and led Pennsylvania's first troop in the Revolutionary War.

His unit quickly distinguished themselves during the Siege of Boston in 1775–1776, where their sharpshooting skills were critical in harassing British troops.

On March 1, 1776, Congress appointed Thompson Brigadier General. The unit he had raised from the Pennsylvania frontier would later be redesignated the First Pennsylvania Continental Regiment — a direct ancestor of the United States Regular Army.

Another Carlisle family made its mark on the war through the craft of gunsmithing. Located at 116–118 Dickinson Avenue, the restored limestone building known as the Thomas Butler Gun Shop was built around 1761 and served as the workshop for Irish immigrant Thomas Butler, an armorer who supplied and repaired rifles for the Cumberland County militia during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.

During the American Revolution, Thomas Butler Sr. was appointed Chief Armorer of the Continental Army.

Thomas Butler and his wife, Eleanor, sent their five sons to fight in the Revolutionary War, all of whom became high-ranking officers — a feat that prompted a famous toast from General George Washington: "To the Butlers and their five sons!"

Together they became known in the Continental Army as "the Fighting Butlers."

The four oldest sons wintered with Washington at Valley Forge in 1777–1778.

The town's military identity was already well established by the 1770s. Carlisle Barracks, originally built during the French and Indian War, had served as a staging point for British operations on the frontier. Dating back to 1745, when British soldiers created the "Camp near Carlisle," the barracks was known as "Washingtonburg" during the Revolutionary War — a name that reflected its deep association with the American cause. When the Continental Congress began organizing for war in 1775, the barracks were a natural choice for conversion into a supply depot for the new Continental Army. In late 1776, the Continental Congress authorized a laboratory and magazine at Carlisle, which soon expanded to a manufacturing center and an arsenal, known locally as Washingtonburg.

Skilled arms makers and artisans had been attracted to Carlisle during the years of British Army activity, and iron furnaces flourished along nearby South Mountain, providing the raw materials needed to fuel a wartime industrial operation.

On January 16, 1777, George Washington appointed Lt. Col. Benjamin Flower commissary of military stores and directed him to manage the Philadelphia artillery yard and set up the arsenal at Carlisle.

Washington wrote a detailed letter to Flower about his expectations at the "laboratory": furnaces would be erected to cast cannon and ammunition, and carriages would be constructed.

In addition to Flower's Regiment of Artificers, there would be an artillery school under Captain Isaac Coren.

The regiment included dozens of craftspeople — carpenters, blacksmiths, nailers, stonecutters, brass founders, shoemakers, armorers, wheelwrights, and other tradesmen whose labor kept the Continental Army supplied and fighting. Washingtonburg served as the main source of ordnance and commissary supply for the Continental Army during the Mid-Atlantic Campaign.

Under the 1779 system of ordnance supply, two major depots were established — one at Springfield, Massachusetts, and the other at Carlisle — their locations selected to avoid the British Army's strength around New York and the Hudson River valley.

It could be argued that in their respective ways, West Point and Washingtonburg were the Continental Army's two most vital military installations.

The physical legacy of that wartime manufacturing effort survives to this day in the form of the Hessian Powder Magazine, still standing on the grounds of Carlisle Barracks.