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New London Military History
Like most settlements on the frontier, New London was defended by a militia made up of local residents. Its central location in Bedford County made it the natural place for the militia to muster for drills and assemble for war. The New London and Bedford County militia participated in several frontier conflicts including the French and Indian and Anglo-Cherokee wars. During the early French and Indian war, the Cherokee nation was allied with the British. That changed when a series of misunderstandings and thefts led to a confrontation in 1758 between a Cherokee war party and colonists from Bedford county that left at least five Virginians and thirty Cherokee dead. This incident near New London exacerbated the already tense relationship between the British and the Cherokee nations and helped to set in motion the events that led to the Anglo-Cherokee war.

Arsenal
New London was home to an arsenal used by the Virginia state militia during the American War for Independence. The weapons and supplies manufactured in the arsenal were used to help support the campaigns of General Nathaniel Greene in the South and Colonel George Rogers Clark in the Ohio river valley. After the war, British Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton claimed to have raided New London in search of the arsenal and the supplies that were stored there. However, according to Thomas Jefferson, Tarleton never made it to New London and stayed closer to Charlottesville. The New London arsenal was operated by the state of Virginia until 1794, when Congress passed a law authorizing the War Department to erect "three or four arsenals" to supply and equip the army. New London's existing state arsenal made it a natural choice for use as a federal arsenal.

Shortly after its acquisition by the War Department, the New London arsenal helped furnish the weapons and equipment used by the army sent to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794. The arsenal only remained operational for a short time. In 1798 the war department began the process of moving the arsenal to a new location with the transfer of armorer's tools from New London to a new location in Harper's Ferry. Even after the means of production were moved, New London continued to be used for the storage of military equipment until at least 1812.