U.S. attorney-general William Wirt and U.S. Army Major John Clarke established the Bellona Foundry on the south shore of the James River, 14 miles west of Richmond, Virginia, in 1810.

Maj. Clarke died in 1844, and supervision of Bellona Foundry passed to Dr. Junius L. Archer, who leased a residence from the Arsenal complex.

Bellona Arsenal, nearby Tredegar Iron Works, and three facilities in other states cast heavy cannon immediately before the American Civil War.

Bellona Arsenal and the somewhat larger Tredegar Iron Works manufactured cannons and similar armaments for the Confederate military.

These included a three-story main arsenal building at the north end with a projecting pavilion and circular third-story windows, two quarters for officers flanking the arsenal, four workshops on the east and west sides of the quadrangle, and a three-story barracks building on the south end.

The similar brick workshop buildings lack foundations, and each have two stories with hipped roofs and interior end chimneys.

The low rectangular powder magazine with walls five and a half feet thick stood to the west of the quadrangle buildings.