Only Philadelphia County supplied more Pennsylvania troops to the Union war effort than Pittsburgh.
The Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, brought quite a "war scare" to Pittsburgh. The city could get no reliable information on the location of Lee's Confederate Army. Construction on a series of forts began immediately. Rumors spread rapidly by telegraph.
However, Pittsburgh did suffer some war-related casualties when, on September 17, 1862, the same day as the Battle of Antietam, an explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal (formerly located in Lawrenceville, killed 78 women and wounded 25. Females replaced men who had gone off to war.
This was the largest-ever loss of women during wartime and some of them were as young as 14.
Today, it is the site of Arsenal Park in the Lawrenceville neighborhood.
Never Heard of This Explosion. --Old Secesh
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