On June 17, 1864, fireworks were laid out to dry by the superintendent of the Washington Arsenal. The heat of the summer day caused the fireworks to explode into the choking room where workers were filling cartridges with gunpowder. The resulting explosions and fire claimed the lives of 21 women, many of them young Irish immigrants working as the sole providers for their families. Seventeen of these victims are interred at Congressional Cemetery, 15 of them laid to rest beneath the Arsenal Monument. (Two are interred separately in family plots.)…
