They had a foundry there. Look up the tapes on the History Channel. There were very few swords that survived because they only went to Confederate soldiers and we know how they used up their stuff.
Christopher Mitchell from Daphne has a shop and I used to see him years before he was on Antiques Roadshow in the shop in Fairhope where at that time you could get a perfect cannonball for $2. Now you can't. I have seen him appraise a Dog River sword on the show and he talked about how rare they are.
Pam