Alabama Blast Furnaces

Irondale Furnace: (Known also as Cahawba Iron Works, McKee Furnace) Jefferson County, near Birmingham

Woodcut made from photoqraph taken of Irondale Furnace in 1873. Note wooden trestle over Shades Creek in foreground. IRONDALE FURNACE (Known also as Cahawba Iron Works, McKee Furnace) Jefferson County, near Birmingham Dec. 1863 or Jan. 1864 ON April 6, 1862 the Battle of Shiloh began and the following day the Confederate retreat started Northward. Northwest Mississippi came under the dominance of the Union Army. At Holly Springs, Mississippi, Jones-McElwain and Co. had a foundry at which ordnance was cast for the Confederate Government but after the Battle of Corinth, in the Autumn of 1862 it became clear that the Holly Springs Iron Works were doomed. The machinery was therefore sold to the Confederate Ordnance Department and a large portion of it was shipped to the arsenal at Macon, Ga. With the capital derived from this sale and with an advance made by the Confederate Government, Jones and McElwain purchased land in upper Shades Valley on Shades Creek in Jefferson County. W. S. McElwain was the practical iron-master of the company and he chose the site of the proposed furnace. The work of building a stone, charcoal furnace was begun in the Spring of 1863. _o.~~ 82 }!Jc-'o- IRONDALE FURNACE The following is a letter of this period written to A. T. Jones, President of the Shelby Iron Co.: "Office Cahawba Iron Works, Jefferson County, Elyton P.O., Ala. May 20, 1863. Dear Sir: Some days since your Mr. Edwards* was here and said your Company would like to get some gas pipe and furnish me with iron for ties for my stack, upon same terms as old prices, enclosed sizes I hand you of the Iron I now require. Yours truly, W. S. McElwain." The trade was made on the basis of 1 foot of 11 /4" pipe to 4 pounds of iron. The Irondale furnace was about 41' high and 101 /2' in the bosh. Its stack apparently differed slightly from others of that era in that it was constructed of heavy masonry at the base and of brick, banded with iron ties on the mantle. There is no accurate record of the exact date on which the furnace was blown in but it is known that the plant was in operation either in December of 1863 or January of 1864. Output of the furnace (about 6 or 7 tons a day) was contracted for by the Nitre and Mining Bureau. The iron was hauled by ox cart or mule team down the Montevallo Road to Brock's Gap and there delivered to the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad and taken to the Confederate arsenal at Selma. During the Civil War two furnaces of Jefferson County made pig iron from the red hematite of Red Mountain. The Irondale furnace used the "soft" are of the Helen Bess mine. The so-called "soft are" was the are near the surface which had been leached out by the weather to a depth of 50 to 100 feet. A small tramway was built from the mine (located on the Eastern slope of Red Mountain) to the furnace, a distance of about three miles. Some time in the Spring or early Summer of 1864 the first successful coke iron made in Alabama was produced at the Irondale furnace. The following is an extract from a report written July 15, 1864 by Maj. Wm. R. Hunt, officer in command at Selma, to Col. J. M. St. John, Chief of Nitre and Mining Bureau in Richmond, Va.: "Iron Ore, Coal and Limestone, the three necessaries to produce pig iron, lie in contiguity in this State and in unlimited quantities ; in many places they approach within half a mile of each other, these presenting to the Iron Master unusual facilities. *See Edwards Furnace. ALABAMA BLAST FURNACES "Mr. McElwain has at my request tried the experiment of manufacturing iron with coke, in a blast furnace. His furnace was not built for Coke being only about 40 feet high, and using cold instead of hot blast.' Yet notwithstanding these disadvantages, his experiment is very satisfactory, his yield was increased from 7 to 10 tons per day, and the iron produced was peculiarly fitted for rolling mill purposes." The experiment was not tried again in Alabama for twelve years. Like all the rest of the iron-masters of that age, McElwain used a large number of slaves hired by the year from their...