Currently, three Confederate armories and arsenals are located on Georgia university property. How and why these extant structures remain comprise the major research question of this work. Research rooted in themes and patterns of post-Civil War adaptive reuse and preservation revealed the answers. The discussed adaptive reuse patterns bring contemporary information to Civil War literature. Additionally, conclusions drawn from this thesis initiate a discussion centered on the origins of the preservation movement and the role that postwar adaptive reuse plays in this narrative.