1862 Explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal

on september 28 1862 reverend robert leah of the lawrenceville pennsylvania presbyterian church said in his sermon the uncertainty of human life has never been more starkly shown in this community than upon the memorable 17th day of september 1862. it's not hard to imagine a minister in pennsylvania in september of 1862 talking about the uncertainty of human life because at the time the united states was engaged in a terrible civil war war whose losses were striking virtually every community in the nation both north and south in fact the 17th day of september 1862 was a particularly gruesome day in that war on that day of battle had been fought between the army of northern virginia under confederate general robert e lee in the army of the potomac under union general george b mcclellan near the town of sharpsburg maryland and a small tributary of the potomac called antietam creek it was the deadliest day in united states history some 22 717 union and confederate troops had died fighting over places like the sunken road and miller's cornfield both sides claimed victory in the battle neither was correct on that score but this despite the need to to remember the victims of that battle when reverend leah talked about the uncertainty of human life he wasn't talking about the battle of antietam because on that same day september 17th 1862 78 people from the lawrenceburg area had died in the worst civilian disaster of the civil war most of them women some of them just children a disaster that was nearly forgotten in the shadow of the bloody battle of antietam the victims of the allegheny arsenal explosion deserve to be remembered what today we would generally decry as child labor was in fact common practice for most of human history writing in the journal the conversation author beth daly notes very few americans thought there was anything wrong with child labor before the civil war most kids under age 15 worked up to 14 hours a day either alongside their parents or for an employer unless they were rich in that case other children worked for their families if a family had more children than labor they would send them to other houses to work as laborers or house servants a 2017 edition of the monthly labor review concludes most families simply could not afford the cost of raising a child from birth to adulthood without some compensating labor growing industrialization increased the trend children a 2020 article on history.com notes were ideal employees because they could be paid less were often of smaller statures so could attend to more minute tasks and were less likely to organize and strike against their pitiable working conditions while the peak of child labor would come later in the 19th century as manufacturing developed rapidly there was a new demand for child and female labor driven by the civil war while the confederacy faced hyperinflation and a currency crisis inflation in the north driven by government spending and borrowing in the demands of the army was still a stunning 80 percent many families struggled as their primary breadwinner was at war which similarly drained the labor pool a 2017 edition of the american cowboy chronicle notes that child labor accounted for 45 to 55 of all the labor used in the north during the civil war and one of the industries that utilized child labor was the manufacturing of arms for the war the allegheny arsenal was established in 1814 occupying 37 acres between 39th street and 40th street from the allegheny river up to penn avenue the arsenal was built by the army ordinance department during the war of 1812 as a center for supply and manufacturing for troops in the west was built in the newly established town of lawrenceville close to pittsburgh because of the area's accessibility to river transportation and its proximity to what was then the nation's only iron producing district the national archives explains originally designed by benjamin latrobe the allegheny arsenal was a fixture in the economic social life of 19th century pittsburgh located in lawrenceville the arsenal spanned over 38 hilly acres built in 1814 the arsenal supplied and communicated with the west from a key location and were meant that the importance of the arsenal grew exponentially in 1860 there were about 300 employees at the arsenal by 1862 there were more than 1100 the arsenal made leather goods stirrups spurs saddle bags it also housed and tested artillery that was made at the nearby fort pitt foundry but one of its primary roles was to produce ammunition for rifles and pistols at its height the allegheny arsenal produced 128 000 cartridges per day the amount of ammunition used in the civil war was mind-boggling the ordnance department reported that more than four and a half million cartridges were issued for the union army at the battle of gettysburg sherman's army during the atlantic campaign used an average of 200 000 cartridges a day the cartridges being made at the arsenal were desperately needed and they were being made largely by children a 2010 edition of the pittsburgh post gazette noted that child labor was nothing new in the industrial city of pittsburgh the reality of 1860s pittsburgh already an industrial and manufacturing giant was that children worked like adults they worked regardless of gender often in crowded and dangerous conditions according to the national archives children as young as 10 worked at the arsenal children were particularly used in the making of cartridges where explosive black powder was placed in paper tubes with bullets children's nimble fingers were ideal for the tedious work of folding and tying the cartridges initially much of the work had been done by boys but in october of 1861 matches were discovered among the bundles of cartridges prepared to be packed the commander of the arsenal colonel john symington wrote the head of the ordinance department that attempts to find the culprit had been unsuccessful the pittsburgh daily gazette wrote that discovery had started rumors in the city some of the people residing near the arsenal were so apprehensive under the excitement of these rumors that they feared to lie down at night lest they be blown to fragments before morning when matches were found after another warning simmington fired 200 boys boys it seems were simply too unreliable for the making of cartridges and many of them smoked and were careless with matches women and girls were found to be more reliable and they didn't smoke symington a career officer who had commanded the arsenal since 1857 wrote the chief of the ordnance department i have discharged all the boys at work in that portion of the laboratory and will supply their places with females this must produce some delay but i am assured from the number of applicants for that kind of work that will only continue for two or three days while they are acquiring the requisite skill and he found the females she needed the website history of american women explains employment at the arsenal enticed young girls widows mothers and wives who were struggling to support their families while their husbands brothers fathers and sons were fighting in the union army most relied on community members such as physicians and clergymen provide character references before they could begin work it was not considered proper for women to work outside the home but this work was allowed because it supported the war effort many were the daughters sisters and wives of impoverished irish catholic immigrant families the pittsburgh post-gazette continues these plucky workers many of them irish immigrants and some as young as 14 gossip or relay grim family news from the battlefields while the repetitive tests stiffen their backs and turn their eyes bleary with fatigue they earn 50 cents to a dollar and 10 cents a day cartridges were produced in the arsenal's main laboratory a single story frame structure that was divided into rooms and holes with a central courtyard around 186 people worked in the building 156 women and girls and 30 men and boys the building was under the supervision of a civilian 44 year old alexander mcbride and among the girls that worked there was his daughter 14 year old catherine mcbride black powder is dangerous stuff the largest manufacturer of black powder in america at the time was the brandywine rivers mills of the dupont company near wellington delaware using according to the encyclopedia of greater philadelphia charcoal made from local willow trees sulfur salt peter shipped in on the delaware river and water power controlled by french water wheels and turbines the manufacturing process was so dangerous that despite strict safety precautions the dupont mill had suffered several explosions in the first quarter of the 19th century in 1859 dupont acquired a powder mill in wap wallopin pennsylvania near wilkes bar which provided powder to the allegheny arsenal but there was a problem barrels of the dupont powder tended to leak an issue which mcbride who had trained as a cooper attributed to reusing barrels when barrels were reused the lids fit more loosely and tended to leak in somington it had a new macadam road built and some employees had complained that the stone that was used was too hard that it could strike a spark if struck by a metal horseshoe or a metal wagon wheel the combination of loose black powder and a potential spark could be catastrophic september 17 1862 was described as a warm sunny day in pittsburgh it was payday at the arsenal by approximately two in the afternoon the paymaster mr bosworth had paid according to the lewiston gazette some 50 girls a local man joseph frick was unloading barrels of gunpowder from dupont from his wagon an employee rachel dunlap reported seeing a spark flash near one of the horse's hooves and a sheet of flame well it could not be definitively determined the post-gazette wrote that it's quite likely that a spark generated from frick's right front iron rib wagon wheel creating a blaze from spilled gunpowder on the new stone road the spark ignited three 100 pound barrels of gunpowder that frick had delivered earlier that are on one side of the courtyard in the middle of the laboratory building the blast killed in attendant robert smith frick was blown from his wagon by the blast but not seriously injured reminiscing 60 years later to a reporter from the pittsburgh is at times a witness mary mccandless mcgraw said at two o'clock another girl and i were the only persons in room 13. the other girls were in another building getting their pay and in the yard suddenly there was a terrific roar the earth seemed to split apart several girls rushed out of the building but the lewistown pennsylvania gazette reported a number of girls who'd rushed out of their rooms went back to sea after the others and thus fell victims the fires from the first explosion had burned around the courtyard igniting five other barrels of powder mcgraw had jumped out a window along with another employee and they were running away when they heard the second explosion she said looking around we saw the building we had just left being torn to pieces less than a minute later there was a third explosion more powder set off by the fires from the first two history of american women writes panic-stricken workers ran from buildings as the air filled with clouds of smoke and the acrid odors of sulfur and burning flesh others tried to flee but became trapped when flaming walls and roofs collapsed on top of them the scene was described as appalling the lewistown gazette wrote that scattered about the ground were fragments of dinner baskets shoes dresses bonnets etc windows were blown out across lawrenceville and the explosions were heard three miles away in pittsburgh the pittsburgh daily post reported so great was the force of the explosion that fragments from the laboratories were thrown hundreds of feet shreds of clothing were found in tree tops of the main building nothing remained but a heap of smoking debris reverend leah said in his sermon the central terror was the burning laboratory here 156 girls were ready to resume their labors and were almost without a moment's notice wrapped in flames they're violently thrown from the building a few ran or were blown out into the yard and escaped some were rescued by the daring of friends but the majority met death instantaneously perhaps hardly knowing the cause of their death lawrenceville local historian michael connors wrote mr j h miller had two daughters killed mrs gabby a widow of 14 weeks was killed was her second week on the job her husband john of the 102nd regiment company f was killed june 1st at the battle of fair oaks ten-year-old kate dillon was killed as were ellen and mary slatterly 16 and 18 respectively james lindsay had two daughters killed the widow smith's son her main means of support was killed she became so ill from her misfortunes that she's not expected to recover the gazette reported the deaths were horrible killed by fire exploding ordinance the lewisberg gazette wrote in one of the charred bodies we noticed 11 bullets in another we noticed nine bullets we came to a spot where two girls were dying both were terribly burned one asked if she was really going to die and desired a priest to be sent for she appeared less injured than her fellow sufferer and spoke in a loud clear voice but death soon came her companion was removed from the ground still alive but beyond recovery the pittsburgh evening chronicle wrote of the agonizing screams of relatives and friends upon discovering the remains of some loved one whose humble earnings contributed to their comfort there was not a particle of clothing left on the majority of the victims and mangled and disjoined as they were it was impossible to identify them alexander mcbride escaped his office through a window he immediately set about trying to save lives and find his daughter but she was among the dead several more girls were injured in a nearby building where some 300 girls worked the lewisburg gazette explains although in no danger whatsoever the girls rushed down the stairs to the front entrance which was already blocked up with a crowd of men and women in which were parents seeking after their daughters there was no ingress or egress and the pressure was frightful women were trotted underfoot some were severely injured and the scene was absolutely alarming 69 people died in the explosion and fire another nine died later from their injuries conor's notes that nearly twice as many workers were injured many with agonizing burns the allegheny arsenal explosion was the worst civilian disaster of the civil war and yet it was barely reported outside of the pittsburgh area largely ignored in the face of the losses at the battle of antietam the explosion was so powerful and the fire so horrible that 54 of the 78 victims could not be identified and were buried in a mass grave in fact many of their names were not known until exhaustive research was done by a committee that placed a monument in 1928. a coroner's inquiry found that symington and mcbride and their employees were guilty of negligence but a military inquiry found that the evidence was so controversial that the exact cause could not be identified and exonerated them both simington was put on medical leave and retired shortly thereafter and mcbride continued working at the arsenal later in life mcbride along with others pressed for congress to fund a fund for victims but no funds were ever allocated it is an irony that the worst civilian loss of life of the civil war is largely forgotten because it occurred on the exact same day as the worst military loss of life of the civil war part of the whole tragedy of the situation is how much it shows us that war numbs us to loss it shouldn't lives still matter even in times of war and the victims of the allegheny arsenal explosion deserve to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 119,946

Rating: 4.9838157 out of 5

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, civil war, pennsylvania, Allegheny arsenal, us history, 1862 explosion, us civil war, lawrenceville

Id: wtQFJKHLzM4

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021