The Allegheny Arsenal, established in 1814, was an important supply and manufacturing center for the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, and the site of the single largest
civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
disaster during the war.
It was located in the community of
Lawrenceville,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, which was annexed by the city of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
in 1868.
Today, the site is the location of the nine-acre Arsenal Park as well as
Arsenal Middle School
The Arsenal Middle School (previously Arsenal Junior High School) in the Lower Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was built in 1932, with a wing for elementary students added in 1939. The school was listed on the National R ...
, a county health services complex, and a large condominium development.
In 2012, officials from the
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation began drawing attention to the deteriorating arsenal structures.
Origins
The Arsenal was established by the U.S. Army Ordnance Department near
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
in 1814. It was situated on of land bordering the
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...
in the community of
Lawrenceville. The site was bounded by 39th Street, 40th Street, and
Penn Avenue
Penn Avenue is a major arterial street in Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg, in Pennsylvania. Its western terminus lies at Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh. For its westernmost ten blocks it serves as the core of the Cultural District with such ...
, and bisected by
Butler Street
Butler Street is a street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is the main commercial thoroughfare of the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Since the early 2000s, it has become a center for arts, dining, and music, with many local businesses including bar ...
, which was and still is the main thoroughfare of Lawrenceville.
The arsenal served as a supply and manufacturing center for the troops in the
west
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
. Its peak years came during the Civil War, especially when the manufacture of
cartridges, became a high priority. Civilian employment at the arsenal increased from a pre-war total of 308 to over 1100 workers. One of the busiest facilities was the main lab, which employed 158 workers, the majority of whom were women engaged in the making of cartridges.
Explosion
On Wednesday, September 17, 1862, around 2 pm, the arsenal exploded. The explosion shattered windows in the surrounding community and was heard in Pittsburgh, over two miles (3 km) away. At the sound of the first explosion, Col. John Symington, Commander of the Arsenal, rushed from his quarters and made his way up the hillside to the lab. As he approached, he heard the sound of a second explosion, followed by a third. Fire fighting equipment as well as a
bucket brigade
A bucket brigade or human chain is a method for transporting items where items are passed from one (relatively stationary) person to the next.
The method was important in firefighting before the advent of hand-pumped fire engines, whereby fir ...
tried to douse the flames with water. The volunteer fire company from Pittsburgh arrived and assisted in bringing the fire under control.
By the time the fire was put out, the lab had been reduced to a pile of
smolder
Smouldering (British English) or smoldering (American English; see spelling differences) is the slow, flameless form of combustion, sustained by the heat evolved when oxygen directly attacks the surface of a condensed-phase fuel. Many solid mate ...
ing
rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary ...
. 78 workers, mostly young women, were killed. 54 bodies were unidentified, and were buried in a mass grave in the nearby
Allegheny Cemetery
Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery.
The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and boun ...
. Among those killed were 15-year-old munitions assembler Catherine Burkhart, who lived at
184 38th Street, and 17-year-old Margaret Turney, who lived at
160 43rd Street.
Investigation
The most commonly held view of the cause of the explosion was that the metal
shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...
of a horse had struck a spark which touched off loose powder in the roadway near the lab, which then traveled up onto the porch where it set off several barrels of
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...
. A
coroner's jury
A coroner's jury is a body convened to assist a coroner in an inquest, that is, in determining the identity of a deceased person and the cause of death. The laws on its role and function vary by jurisdiction.
United Kingdom
In England and Wale ...
held that the accident had been the result of the negligent conduct of Col. John Symington and his subordinates in allowing loose powder to accumulate on the roadway and elsewhere. However, during a subsequent military inquiry into the conduct of Col. Symington, many of the same witnesses who had appeared before the coroner changed their testimony. There were so many discrepancies between the two hearings that most of the commonly held views of the explosion have been shown to be thoroughly discredited. In the end Col. Symington was found innocent of any wrongdoing by the army, and the court concluded that "the cause of the explosion could not be satisfactorily ascertained...."
Col. Symington, in a letter to the
Ordnance Department
The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a Combat service support (United States), sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Lee (Virginia), Fort Lee, Virginia. The ...
two days after the explosion, speculated that it had been caused "by the leaking out of powder when one of the barrels was being placed on the platform." In fact the problem of leaking barrels seemed to be the one point of agreement among all the witnesses. Alexander McBride, the Superintendent of the Lab, had repeatedly complained that the powder shipped by
Dupont and Company
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
was delivered in defective barrels with loose covers. Symington was suspicious that the "parties shipping powder may have used barrels more than once for the shipment of powder, as the barrels have been returned to them at their request." But in the end, the final word still belongs to the Army inquiry and the exact cause remains unknown. Col. Symington would be placed on medical leave after the hearings and retire the following year.
Aftermath
The explosion at the Arsenal was overshadowed by the
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union G ...
, which occurred on the same day near the town of
Sharpsburg, Maryland
Sharpsburg is a town in Washington County, Maryland. The town is approximately south of Hagerstown. Its population was 705 at the 2010 census.
During the American Civil War, the Battle of Antietam, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Sharpsb ...
.
Monument
A monument to those killed in the explosion is located near the graves of the unidentified victims in Section 17 of
Allegheny Cemetery
Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery.
The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and boun ...
. The monument was dedicated on May 27, 1928, replacing an earlier marble shaft placed shortly after the explosion which had become illegible by the 1920s. The monument lists the names of all 78 people killed in the blast along with a dedicatory text transcribed from the original monument.
Later history
Work at the Arsenal continued, and a new lab was constructed by the following year. After the war, the Allegheny Arsenal served primarily as a storage facility for the Ordnance Department and Quartermaster Corps.
In the early 1900s, the War Department consolidated its operations in the western half of the arsenal grounds. The other half, above
Butler Street
Butler Street is a street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is the main commercial thoroughfare of the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Since the early 2000s, it has become a center for arts, dining, and music, with many local businesses including bar ...
, became surplus property. Five acres at the east end were transferred in 1904 to build the
Pittsburgh U.S. Marine Hospital, which is now the
Allegheny County
Allegheny County () is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's seco ...
Health Department's Frank B. Clack Health Center. The remaining land was converted into Arsenal Park, which was dedicated on the
Fourth of July
Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...
, 1907.
Arsenal Middle School
The Arsenal Middle School (previously Arsenal Junior High School) in the Lower Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was built in 1932, with a wing for elementary students added in 1939. The school was listed on the National R ...
was built at the west end of the park in 1932.
The western half of the arsenal remained in use through
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
but eventually became obsolete. It was sold to the
H. J. Heinz Company
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contine ...
in 1926 and subsequently used for various industrial and commercial purposes. The arsenal's former main gate was demolished in 1947 to make more room for delivery trucks, though it remained as a pile of rubble until the site was cleared for a new supermarket in 1961.
Most of the western half of the arsenal site is now occupied by the Arsenal 201 condominium complex. Construction crews working on the condominiums uncovered caches of Civil-War-era
cannonballs in 2017 and again in 2020.
Today the site of the explosion is in a
ballfield in Arsenal Park. Most of the arsenal buildings were demolished, but there are four still standing: the
powder magazine Powder Magazine, Powder House, or Powderworks may refer to:
*Powder tower or powder house, a building used to store gunpowder or explosives; common until the 20th century
*Gunpowder magazine, a building designed to store gunpowder in wooden barrels ...
, now a maintenance shed for the park, two magazine buildings on the grounds of the Clack Health Center, and a former officers' quarters on 39th Street. A
Quartermaster Corps
Following is a list of Quartermaster Corps, military units, active and defunct, with logistics duties:
* Egyptian Army Quartermaster Corps - see Structure of the Egyptian Army
* Hellenic Army Quartermaster Corps (''Σώμα Φροντιστών ...
insignia
An insignia () is a sign or mark distinguishing a group, grade, rank, or function. It can be a symbol of personal power or that of an official group or governing body.
On its own, an insignia is a sign of a specific or general authority and is ...
dated 1814 that was originally part of the gate was preserved and is now mounted on the old powder magazine.
[ All of the surviving buildings, along with several sections of stone wall surrounding the former arsenal, became contributing properties to the newly created ]Lawrenceville Historic District
Lawrenceville Historic District is a national historic district located at Lawrenceville, Brunswick County, Virginia. It encompasses 326 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, 3 contributing structures, and 1 contributing object in the ce ...
in 2019.
See also
*Brown's Island
Brown's Island is an artificial continental island on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, formed by the Haxall Canal. Part of the city's James River Park, it is the popular venue of a large number of outdoor concerts and festivals in the spr ...
, Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
, image_map =
, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
, pushpin_m ...
. Exploded in 1863
References
''The Allegheny Arsenal'' by Allan Becer
- Includes a list of the names of the victims
External links
Travel Channel video on the explosion and park
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{{Authority control
History of Pittsburgh
United States Army arsenals
American Civil War sites
Explosions in the United States
1862 disasters in the United States
1862 industrial disasters
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks
Parks in Pittsburgh
1814 establishments in Pennsylvania
Government buildings completed in 1814
Industrial buildings completed in 1814
Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania
Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh)