The Battle of Midway represented a significant blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and a measure of revenge for the United States, in the sinking of four aircraft carriers. But there was an ancillary story that is not nearly as well known.
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.