Construction of the Round Mountain Furnace began in 1849 at the site of the Milner Forge directly downhill, and Moses Stroup and Wilson Nesbitt incorporated the Alabama Mining & Manufacturing Co. a year later. Put into blast by noted Southern ironmaster Moses Stroup in 1852, it was the fourth oldest blast furnace in Alabama and the first furnace to make use of red fossiliferous iron ore. In its first year it produced 2½ tons of iron for kettles, skillets and foundry products, employing 45 workers and taking ore from the side of the mountain. It became an important source of Confederate iron during the Civil War for the Noble Brothers Foundry in Rome, Georgia and the C.S. Naval Gun Foundry at Selma, Alabama, and during the war it was leased by the firm of Daugdrill & Creigher. Federal troops led by Col. Abel D. Steight in 1863 and Maj. Gen. Francis B. Blair in 1864 attacked it twice, and after being badly damaged during the Civil War it was rebuilt and enlarged in 1874 and 1888. The plant was sold to Samuel P.S. Marshall in 1855 and a few years later to J.M. Elliott, later reaching peak production of 6,500 tons per year when much of its iron was used for railroad car wheels before permanently closing in December, 1906.