Whether you are superstitious or not, there is one thing about a Friday 13th, in September 1863 to be remembered, and it was a tragedy.
Brown's Island, which was located in the James River near the tip of Seventh St. had been turned into an ordinance factory, named the Confederate States Laboratory. It had a couple hundred employees, most of them young girls, and they manufactured most of the ammunition for the Confederacy.
On this particular Friday the 13th, everything seemed to be going along as normally as could be expected in a civil war strangled city. That is, until a young girl working in the ammunition facility had a mishap with a friction primer, that caused an explosion. This explosion caused a chain reaction of explosions.
The "Richmond Daily Examiner" newspaper later reported in its headlines, "Terrible Laboratory Explosion on Brown’s Island - Between Forty and Fifty Killed and Wounded - Horrible Scenes."
The Examiner gave its account of the scene: "The apartment in which the explosion occurred, about fifty feet in length and twenty in width, was blown into a complete wreck, the roof lifted off, and the walls dashed out, the ruins falling upon the operatives, and the horrors of fire were threatened to be added to those of the explosion; but the flames were suppressed."
"While the male employees were laboring to rescue the helpless victims, the most heart-rending lamentations and cries issued from the ruins from sufferers rendered delirious from suffering and terror. No sooner was one helpless, unrecognizable mass of humanity cared for and removed before the piteous appeals of another would invoke the energy of the rescuers. Some ten to twenty were taken from the ruins dead, and from twenty to thirty still alive, but suffering the most terrible agonies, blind from burns, with their hair burned from their heads, and the clothes hanging in burning shreds about their persons. Others less injured ran wailing frantically, and rushing wildly into the nearest arms for succor and relief. Mothers rushed about, throwing themselves upon the corpses of the dead, and the persons of the wounded."
Col. Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance wrote in his diary: "The accident was caused by the ignition of a friction primer in the hands of a grown girl by the name of Mary Ryan. She . . .gave a clear account of the circumstances. The primer stuck in the varnishing hoard and she struck the board three times very hard on the table to drive out the primer. She says she was immediately blown up to the ceiling and on coming down was again blown up."
It doesn't matter if you are superstitious or not, this was admittedly a great disaster that coincidentally happened on FRIDAY 13TH!
Each time a new article is published for the "The Civil War History Examiner," a trivia question will be asked. The answers will come from as many reliable sources as I can find; however, I do not consider myself to be an expert, and my answers and articles are taken from research, but I can only list it as conjecture on my part, because I was not there. Please feel free to state your opinion about the articles and trivia, and please send me your own observations on the information I present. Your comments can be sent to me by clicking on the first box to the right of the headline at the top of this page.
Trivia Question: Who made up the regiment of 1st South Carolina Volunteers?
The answer to the last article's trivia question: When Robert E. Lee's youngest son entered the army, what was his rank and duty? private - cannoneer