The strange story of Congressman John Vautrain Creely’s disappearance is simply a mystery. If he “absconded,” he did so surprisingly thoroughly, leaving behind his yacht, his home, his law practice, his seat in congress and his toothbrush.
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.