By an act of congress, on January 28, 1915 the United States Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life Saving Service were merged to create the United States Coast Guard. But the Coast Guard’s status as an independent branch of the military was not secure, even given the Coasties’ distinguished service during the Great War. There was a very real chance the Coast Guard would be merged into the Navy, until the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.