In the middle of the James River sits Brown’s Island which was the site of a Confederate Ordinance Laboratory. In order to conserve gunpowder and copper tubing these labs recycled friction primers and ammunition. Often the workers were young underaged females. A friction primer is a copper tube that fits in the touch hole or vent of a muzzle-loading cannon whose lower end is buried in the gunpowder chamber. The upper end of the primer has a perpendicular spur tube that is filled with a priming mixture of potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide. A wire extends from the outer end of the spur tube through the priming mixture and the gunpowder tube. The wire often contains a loop on the opposite side that is attached to the lanyard. When the lanyard is pulled through the priming mixture the gunpowder in the tube is ignited and ignites the powder within the chamber of the cannon. This was dangerous work and there were several explosions in these labs during the war, the most prominent were in Richmond and Washington, DC. The explosion in the Richmond Laboratory was the largest industrial accident in the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Richmond facility employed about six-hundred workers, one-half of them were women and children. One of the workers in the facility was 18-year old Mary Ryan. Mary was born in Ireland to Michael and Mary Ryan around 1843. She was the sixth of seven children. Sometime prior to 1860 the family emigrated to the United States and lived in the Oregon Hill section of Richmond. Mary’s job was to fill the friction primers with gunpowder. On Friday March 13, 1863, over sixty workers were crowded into a single room of a building performing a variety of tasks including: packing friction primers; breaking open condemned cartridges; filling new cartridges and sewing linen ammunition bags. It was very poor planning to have these tasks all carried out in the same room. The black gunpowder used was highly explosive.
Mary was working at the end of a table. Nearby several young boys were handling black powder while teenage girls were filling new cartridges. Catherine Cavanaugh was sweeping the floor and Mary Cunningham was sewing linen bags. The room had loose gunpowder scattered over the floor and table, along with percussion caps and rifle cartridges. Mary banged a block of friction primers on the table to loosen them. A spark ignited the friction primer and it exploded, this initial explosion ignited a second larger explosion of all the powder in the room. Ten people were killed instantly and the building collapsed on those inside. Scores of people rushed to the scene to help. The closest hospital was General Hospital #2 at the southwest corner of 7th and Cary Streets and many of the most severely wounded (burns) were brought there. There was no effective treatment for burns at the time and many succumbed over the next several days. A badly injured Mary Ryan died three days later. The military began an investigation into the accident. Ordinance Officer Josiah Gorgas interviewed Mary before she died. The military board concluded that the explosion was caused by the extremely careless handing of friction primers by Mary Ryan. The laboratory reopened on April 4 with new safety guidelines.
Fourteen of the deceased were buried in Shockoe Cemetery- 210 Hospital Street. Four are buried close together: Virginia Mayer- age 12; Wilhelmina Defenbach- age 15; Emma Blankenship- age 15; and Caroline Zeitenmayer- age 16. Ten others are scattered thoughout the cemetery: Margaret Alexander- age 12; Mary Valentine- age 14; Alice Johnson- age 12; Martha Clemmons- age 25; Ann “Nannie” Horan- age 14; Virginia C. Page- age 13; Mary Ellen Wallace- age 12; Anne E. Bolton- age 14; Margaret Drustly- age 16; and Mary Zerhum- age 12.
Four girls buried close together near the memorial- 37.5516667, -77.4313833
i found stones for 8 of the other 10 women
I could not find stones for Alice Johnson who was reportedly buried in the Fraysier plot- Range 13 section 17 shown below
Mary Ellen Wallace was reportedly buried in Range 2 section 19, Mary Zerhun was there but Mary Ellen Wallace was not.
Fifteen of the victims are buried in Hollywood Cemetery- 412 South Cherry Street: Mary Ryan; Reverend John Woodcock- age 63; Mary Blessingham- age 12; Eliza Willis- age 10; Barbara Jackson- age 16; Sarah Marshall, the oldest known victim at age 67; Robert Chaple- age 15, Sarah Foster- age 14, Elizabeth Moore- age 15, Mary Annie Garnett- age 13, Mary Ann Archer- age 12, Elizabeth Young- age 33, Annie Peddicord, Sarah Haney, and Delia Clemens- age 20. I was able to locate all of them.
Reverend John Woodcock was the supervisor of the room where the explosion occurred. He is the only victim that has his own headstone.
A monument to the deceased is also present in Oakwood Cemetery- 3101 Nine Mile Road. It lists 47 people on the back. Some sources list the number of deaths at 50.
Martha Daly, age 15, and her sister Ann Daly Dodson, age 18, were both killed—the only pair of sisters lost. Mary Zinginham was killed, but her sister Caroline survived.