The Athenian Parthenon is perhaps the most recognized of the ruins of the ancient world. But how, exactly, did the great temple become a ruin? Was it an ancient battle? A disaster of antiquity? Well, neither. It might surprise you to find out that the building itself remained largely intact into the early modern era.
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.