It is March 13, and 346 years ago today the Massachusetts Bay Colony made a novel purchase. Boston Magazine wrote in 2014: “On March 13, 1677, the imperial dreams of Massachusetts came to fruition. For on that day, our colony bought Maine for £1,250 sterling.”
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.