fiction fridays: guest post by tina pinson

War is hell on the home front, too. Having been a Navy wife, and mother of a sailor, I understand the sentiment. But even my perception falls short of what many women and children deal with daily because the war is being fought in their hometown, or like in the Civil War, raging right over their house.

When Shadows Fall (the Shadow Series book 1) releases May 1. In my story, the nation is at war, The Civil War, and Rebekah Montgomery is caught right in the middle of it.

I give this following story as a reminder of what many of those who stayed behind had to deal with.

On September 17^,1862 the Battle of Antietam was waged. It was the first battle to be fought on Union Soil. History dictates that it was the bloodiest, single day of battle during the Civil War. It was significant. Front page news.

That same day in September another occurrence took place that was tied directly to the war. It’s headline was printed lower on the page. It wasn’t blaring my any means, and the story behind it was just a clip in comparison to the story that followed the news of Antietam. But this story was no less significant. It told the story of the plight of many during the war, a reminder that the Civil War impacted everyone. Not everyone who incurred loss stepped on the battlefield.

It was crisp a Autumn morning just outside of Pittsburgh. Many of the workers, women and school aged girls headed to Lawrenceville’s Allegheny Arsenal, where they worked to build cartridges and other articles for the soldiers in the field.

Some 1000 plus workers had employment at the arsenal in 1862 most worked long hour days for 50 cents to $1.10 hourly rate. They worked to make a living and keep food on the table because their husbands and fathers were gone to war. Since it was payday most of them were probably at work. A vast majority of those who worked at the Arsenal were women and school-aged girls. They had to be of ‘character,’ which meant they were widows and orphans.

Working around barrels of black powder made conditions dangerous, so strict rules were enacted for the protection of the workers. Only enough powder for the day was to be in the lab. Empty boxes were not to be kept. Ammunition was to be placed in the magazines at night. Workers at the cartridge making tables were not to get up and leave their seats. (static electricity?). Workspaces were to be clean. Loose powder was swept out onto the stone roadway between buildings and gathered up into powder boxes and disposed of.

Around two that day, there was spark, a little spark, caused from a horseshoe or wagon wheel on the stone road, then a fire, followed by a series of explosions. So loud, the residences of nearby Pittsburg and Allegheny, thought they were under attack from Confederate forces. When the townspeople arrived on scene at the arsenal, however, they met a horrendous sight. The Pittsburgh Gazette would call it “an appalling sight.”

The roof over the cartridge assembly building had collapsed, and flames licked out from its remains. The windows and doors of the surrounding buildings had been blown out by the powerful blasts from exploding gunpowder.

Woman and children ran from the buildings, screaming. Their clothes tattered from the blast and burning on their bodies, or missing completely. The fire was so hot it melted bodies to bone and white dust, only the steel bands from their hoops remained. Other bodies were badly riddled, some beyond recognition, by the explosion and ensuing shrapnel. Body parts were strewn over the area.

When it was over, and the smoke had cleared, 78 people mainly women and girls and some men and boys were dead. Unsung heroes of the war. History would say it was Pittsburgh’s bloodiest day. A stark reminder that the Civil War was far reaching and touched more lives than the men who stepped on the fields of the front.

To learn more about the Allegheny Arsenal Tragedy here are a couple sites.

http://www.historynet.com/explosion-at-the-allegheny-arsenal.htm

http://rgkellerman.blogspot.com/2011/02/allegheny-arsenal-explosion-brief.html