Kentucky was the first US state west of the Appalachian mountains. But statehood for a Commonwealth of irregular shape would result in contention and change for decades.
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.