Mount Vernon Arsenal

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Mount Vernon Arsenal is a historic site in Mount Vernon, Alabama, in Mobile County. It sits on 36 acres near the Mobile River, a short distance from Fort Stoddert and the Gulf of Mexico. The complex started in 1828 as a U.S. Army ammo factory and became one of the main ammunition plants before the Civil War. On January 4, 1861, Alabama’s governor ordered state troops to take control, and the arsenal then served the Confederacy during the war. After the war, it was returned to the federal government and renamed Mount Vernon Barracks. From 1887 to 1894, the Barracks housed a prison for captured Apache people, including Geronimo. Walter Reed, who showed that yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes, served there in the 1880s. In 1895 the site was given to the state of Alabama, and today the Searcy Hospital part is closed. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Mount Vernon Arsenal-Searcy Hospital Complex.