Throughout the course of the Civil War, most large cities in the Confederacy were reduced to smoking ruins. Mobile, Alabama survived mostly intact, surrendering to Union forces on April 12, 1865 as the end of the war neared. The city quickly returned to being a bustling seaport, with thousands of bales of cotton filling the warehouses awaiting transport to northern cotton mills. Additionally, approximately 30 tons of Union and captured Confederate munitions were stored in a nearby temporary brick warehouse until they could be moved into underground magazines.
May 25th was a very hot day. A number of recently paroled confederate soldiers and freed slaves were hired to unload a munitions train into the warehouse. The men were untrained, unsupervised, and went about the work in a "happy-go-lucky" manner, as reported by an observer. At 2:15 p.m., a massive explosion shook the city. A witness would later speak of the event:
"Suddenly, as if by some great volcanic upheaval of the earth, a black mass sprang into the quiet sky, and spreading its lurid wings, dealt death and terror for miles around. It seemed a writhing giant--gaunt and grim--poised in midair, and from its wondrous loins sprang bursting shells, flying timbers, bales of cotton, balls of rosin, bars and sheets of iron, bricks, stone, wagons, horses, men and women and children commingled and mangled into one mass."
Nearly eight city blocks were obliterated, as were several steamers in the river. An estimated 300 people were killed, and damages are estimated to have been around $5 million. The crater remained for years, a visible reminder of the catastrophe. The exact cause was never determined. Although some northern newspapers blamed it on former Confederate officers, most accepted the theory that it was the result of simple carelessness by workers handling wheelbarrows full of live ammunition.
-Professor Walter
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