This cache combines three elements that we find interesting - Civil War history, cemeteries and field puzzles. This cache is available dawn to dusk only.
Although no Civil War battles were fought in the Pittsburgh area, the area played an important role in providing arms and munitions to the Union Army. At the start of the Civil War the Allegheny Arsenal located in Lawrenceville was one of the principle arsenals in America. Young boys were originally employed to assemble paper cartridges, each consisting of a lead minie ball and 60 grains of black powder wrapped in a paper shell, in various rooms within a building known as the Laboratory. Some of the young boys were tobacco smokers and following several incidences where matches were found in the cartridge rooms, all of the boys, nearly 200, were discharged and the positions filled with girls and young women.
On September 17, 1862 around 2:00 p.m. an explosion ripped through the laboratory followed a few minutes later by a second and third explosion. The explosions and resulting fire completely reduced the laboratory building into a smoldering pile of rubble. A coroner’s inquest was immediately conducted followed by a military inquest a month later, but the actual cause of the first explosion was never determined and remains a mystery. One modern theory, based on testimony from the inquests, is that the powder supplier, DuPont, was reusing wooden barrels that leaked powder due to loose fitting lids. These barrels while being transported by horse drawn wagons from the magazine to the laboratory leaked black powder onto the stone roadway running adjacent to the laboratory. Additional powder was spilled on the porches of the laboratory where the barrels were unloaded, and some opened for distributing powder to the cartridge rooms. The iron rimmed wheel of a delivery wagon passing the laboratory may have struck a spark on the stone road which ignited the spilled powder on the road. The flame commuted to the spilled powder on the porch of the laboratory and ignited an open barrel of black powder resulting in the initial explosion. Fire from the initial explosion triggered the subsequent explosions of barrels filled with black powder within the laboratory building and the adjacent engine building, along with exploding cartridges and artillery shells.
The explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal was the worst civilian disaster of the Civil War. The fatalities totaled 78 with 72 being young girls and women. Of these fatalities half were so badly burned or mutilated that they could not be identified. The federal government provided 39 coffins for the unidentified remains and the Allegheny Cemetery donated a plot for the mass grave for these victims. Little national attention was given to this disaster as it was overshadowed by the reporting of 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing in the single bloodiest day of fighting near the small town of Sharpsburg, MD at the Battle of Antietam.
Now for this cache. In 1863 an Egyptian obelisk was erected over the site of the common grave for the unidentified victims at the Allegheny Cemetery with the names of those buried there inscribed on stone tablets. Age and the effect of weathering all but obliterated the names and in 1928 the obelisk was replaced with a new monument containing the names of all those killed. The posted coordinates will bring you to this monument. The list of names on this monument will provide the coordinates for the final location.
Coordinates for the final are N40° 28.ABC and W79° 57.DEF.
A – Mr. Smith was stepping over the 100-pound barrels of black powder that first exploded and was probably the first fatality of the disaster. Mr. Smith’s first name was:
Andrew = 1
Robert = 2
Uriah = 3
B – Alexander McBride, Arsenal Superintendent, was in his office at the laboratory when the first explosion collapsed part of his office wall. He escaped through a window then attempted to reach his 14-year-old daughter working in one of the other rooms, but was unable when the burning ceiling of that room collapsed. Mr. McBride’s daughter’s first name was:
Kate = 0
Susan = 2
Alice = 4
C - Joseph E. Bollman (Mr. McBride’s clerk) rescued one girl from the laboratory then returned into the laboratory to rescue his daughter. Both he and his daughter were killed. His daughter’s first name was:
Sarah = 0
Annie =2
Mary = 4
D – Miss Fleming, age 12, was the youngest girl killed. Her first name was:
Ella =0
Nancy = 1
Catherine = 2
E – Many families lost several family members. James Lindsay, a shoemaker, lost 2 daughters age 18 and 21. His daughter’s names were:
Eliza & Harriet = 1
Ellen & Mary = 2
Martha & Mary =3
F – Mary, age 18, and Agnes, age 20, were sisters killed at the laboratory. Their last name was:
Davison = 0
Burke = 2
McKenna = 4
Check Sum: A+B+C+D+E+F=8
Congratulations to Sharon12 for FTF.