There is a boatload of guns at the Springfield Armory. Lots of guns and not just guns made there. The National Historic Site has one of the largest collections of US military small arms in the world, and only a small selection is on display. I got interested in visiting the site after a presentation by a Civil War reenactor when I was visiting Gettysburg. He referred to his rifled musket as a Springfield, showed us the Minié ball, percussion caps and let us fire off a blank. It was fun, and so I planned a visit to see armory where the musket was made. 
Since an armory is where they make arms, I knew there would be guns. I didn’t expect a gun organ, guns that had been struck by lightening or personalized rifles from the Civil War. But I guess that is the point of an armory – guns – and they cranked them out at the Springfield Armory.
George Washington established the site as an arsenal early in the Revolutionary War. Within a few years, the site became the country’s first national armory, producing muskets for national defense. Half the museum covers the armory’s contributions to industry. Springfield was high tech and attracted a diverse, skilled workface to the area. Several technological advancements like interchangeable parts and assembly line manufacturing started in Springfield, and drove the industrial revolution. The olden days style video at the site reenacts Thomas Blanchard giving a demo of his replicating lathe, which could carve irregularly shaped gunstocks. The lathe is displayed, but without watching the video, I wouldn’t have understood what a big deal it was. The advances led to huge production – over a thousand rifles a day at one point during the Civil War. 
The other side of the museum displays the weapons. I don’t know much about guns, but there were machine guns, rifles, examples of all the guns made at Springfield and a huge rack of guns – the “organ of muskets” that inspired Longfellow to write an anti-war poem after he visited the armory on his honeymoon. I guess honeymoons were different in 1843.
Out of everything in the collection, my favorite things were the Civil War era rifles that soldiers had personalized. Some had fairly crude etchings of the battles fought, while others showed a bit of craftsmanship. Another cool case had several guns deformed by lightening strikes, getting hit with shrapnel, or damaged with sweat. Somehow these guns meant something, had a personal history of sorts. Not a pretty history, to be sure.
It was a strange time to go to see a whole bunch of guns. I went just after the shootings in Charleston, South Carolina, and I was a little disturbed to be surrounded by so many weapons. There were several men and boys there, enthusiastically checking out the guns. One man was taking notes during the video. I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm for looking at all the different makes and models. While I understand that these weapons are historic and have an important place in the nation’s s history, the Springfield Armory is a reminder of just how much of our history was shaped by war and violence.
