Bird's eye view of the location of the explosion, now home to Fort Lesley J. McNair and the Army War College.
Date
June 17, 1864
Location
The Washington Arsenal, Washington, D.C.
The 1864 Washington Arsenal explosion occurred on June 17, 1864, at the Washington Arsenal (now known as Fort Lesley J. McNair) in Washington, D.C. The explosion occurred after the Arsenal's superintendent left hundreds of flares to dry in the hot summer sun. The location of these flares was near some of the Arsenal's buildings. When the explosion happened, some of the flares entered into a warehouse via an open window. Inside, a fire quickly started and when a barrel of gunpowder was set on fire, the roof of the building blew off. The warehouse was staffed with 108 women at the time of the explosion; 21 of them, mostly Irish immigrants, died and many more were seriously injured. Assistance from other Arsenal employees and several local fire companies soon arrived. A coroner's inquiry found the superintendent had foolishly left the flares to dry near occupied buildings, but he was never charged with a crime.
After the disaster, employees from the Arsenal and other citizens of the nation's capital, decided to erect a monument to honor the women who died. The day after the explosion there were four burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery. The following day, a large number of people attended the funeral service held at the Arsenal. Among those in attendance were President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who had ordered the Arsenal's leaders to spare no expense in the burial of the victims. The processions then moved to gravesites in Congressional Cemetery where two pits were dug: one for the identified bodies and the second for the unidentified. Within a year, enough money had been raised to pay Lot Flannery to create a monument. He created the monument's statue, Grief, and his Flannery Brothers company built the pedestal and base. A dedication service took place on the one-year anniversary of the explosion.
In the years that followed, there were additional explosions that happened at the Arsenal, including one that claimed the lives of 10 men. The Arsenal was closed a few years after the Civil War ended, and renamed Washington Barracks for many years, until acquiring its current name, Fort Lesley J. McNair. On the 150th anniversary of the explosion Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore was in the city and stopped by the cemetery to lay a wreath. He did so because many of the dead were Irish immigrants. On that same day Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall officials held a ceremony to honor the women who died.
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