Union Metallic Cartridge Company

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1867, Union Metallic Cartridge Company—UMC to anyone who preferred their industrial history stamped in three letters—made metallic cartridges, primers, rimfire and centerfire ammunition, and shotgun shells. Its roots lay in equipment relocated from cartridge makers in South Coventry, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts.

UMC grew into a formidable ammunition manufacturer in Bridgeport’s East Side, where its works became part of the city’s oversized role in America’s arms-making age. The company’s name turned up on cartridge packaging and headstamps long before disposable branding became the national pastime. A 1906 powder-magazine explosion and the 1909 construction of its towering shot tower supplied the appropriately dramatic factory lore.

Marcellus Hartley’s business interests also acquired E. Remington & Sons in 1888. UMC’s independent corporate life ended in the 1911–1912 combination with Remington; the resulting Remington-UMC enterprise kept Bridgeport at the center of its ammunition operations while firearm production remained associated with Ilion, New York. The old UMC name endured on products and in collector shorthand long after the corporate shuffle.

Our Union Metallic Cartridge Company collection celebrates the brass, paper, lead, brick, and boardroom maneuvering behind a Bridgeport ammunition original. It is a salute to the era when a compact UMC headstamp could carry an entire industrial city’s swagger.