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Louis Froelich, a thoroughly educated and scientific
mechanic, first immigrated to England from Bavaria, where it is said that he
worked on the steam ship Great Eastern, as a Steam Engine
Mechanic. After a stop in New York, by
1861 he was in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Froelich would later be known as the “Sword Maker for the
Confederacy”. In April 1861 under the
direction of Mr. Froelich the NC Button Manufactory was started. They turned out uniform buttons and also
brass patterns for canon balls. By the
end of the year Froelich began a partnership with a Colonel B. Estvan.
Together they formed the “CSA Arms Factory”. By November 1861 the factory was
ready for production and would turn out lances, saber bayonets, officers
swords, Calvary sabers, artillery swords and all other cutting, sticking and
stabbing utensils. By 1862 the
factory was in full operation with about 70 employees. In March 12, 1862 Froelich dissolved his
partnership with Colonel B. Estvan.
The Wilmington site was below the foundry of the Clarendon Iron
Works. The present day location would
be at the water’s edge, south of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.
Then the Yellow Fever disease
struck Wilmington in the summer of 1862.
Many businesses shut down, as did the Arms Factory. So Louis Froelich started to look for a new
location for the factory, and his family, outside of Wilmington. He needed a constant supply of wood for his
steam engine in the factory. So on
September 30, 1862 Froelich purchased 2 ½ acres of land from Alsa
Southerland, in the town of Kenansville NC for $900. Kenansville had an abundant supply of wood,
and in a short time the factory was in production.
Louis Froelich and Co., Wilmington
NC and Kenansville, NC, from April 1, 1861 to March 1, 1864 furnished 18 sets
of surgical instruments, 800 gross of military buttons, 3,700 lance spears,
6,500 saber bayonets, 11,700 cavalry sabers, 2,700 officer’s sabers, 600
naval cutlasses, 800 artillery cutlasses, 1,700 set of infantry
accoutrements, 300 saber belts and 300 knapsacks.
Such production indicates a
substantial armory and it would have been a target for Lt. Col. George W.
Lewis and his Federal troops when passing through Kenansville on July 4, 1863
on their way to destroy communications lines at Warsaw. The report of Major General John G. Foster,
US Army, to Headquarters in New Bern on July 7, 1863, gives a detailed
account of Lt. Col. Lewis’ March through Duplin County. A portion as follows:
“General I have the honor to
report that the cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. George W. Lewis,
consisting of about 640 men of the 3rd & Weldon Railroad, have
safely returned. New York Calvary, sent out
by me on July 3, 1863 for the purpose of destroying communications on the
Wilmington
The force left here on the morning
of July 3, 1863 and reached Trenton that night, starting the next morning for
Kenansville, via Comfort, and Hallsville, driving the enemy pickets, arriving
at which place they surprised a Company of Calvary there, capturing their
arms and equipment, some horses and 6 prisoners. At the Place an armory was destroyed which
contained some 2,500 sabers and large quantities of saber bayonets, bowie
knives, and other small arms, a steam engine and implements for manufactory
of knapsacks and some commissary store-houses were burned. A large confederate flag and some cavalry
guidons were also found.”
After the war Froelich remained in
Kenansville and involved himself in agriculture and became quite the expert
wine maker. Sometime in the 1870’s
Froelich moved with his family to Enfield, NC in Halifax County and it was
there on October 27, 1873 at the age of 56 that he died of Consumption. The last line in his obituary reads: “His many friends will regret to hear of
his death, as he was among the most useful men of his day and generation.”
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