As Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard in 1861 and one of President Lincoln’s closest advisors, John Dahlgren was instrumental in supporting the Navy’s ordnance needs throughout the Civil War including his development of a historic Navy mainstay still known today as the Dahlgren gun—a smoothbore, bottle-shaped cannon. By the 1870’s, the Washington Navy Yard’s shipbuilding capacities were diminishing as the principal product of its numerous factory buildings onsite had become ordnance. The area became known as the Naval Gun Factory and industrial activity there flourished.