Pittsburgh in the American Civil War

Within three years, the growing needs of the military effort during the Civil War had boosted the city's economy with increased production of iron and armaments, especially at the Allegheny Arsenal and the Fort Pitt Foundry.

The Fort Pitt Foundry made mammoth iron castings for giant siege howitzers and mortars, among the largest guns in the world.

Other prominent Pittsburgh area factories included Singer, Nimick and Co. (maker of 3" Ordnance rifles) and Smith, Park and Co., which produced more than 300,000 projectiles.

In addition, the sprawling factory produced as many as 40,000 bullets and cartridges every day (more than 14 million per year), supplying between 5 and 10 percent of the Army's annual small arms ammunition requirements.

A significant explosion on the afternoon of September 17, 1862 (coincidentally on the same day as the Battle of Antietam in central Maryland), killed 78 factory workers, mostly young women.

Pittsburgh's rolling mills supplied the armor for many of the ironclads that were built in New York City and Philadelphia for the Union Navy.

Among these bastions was Fort Robert Smalls, a redoubt built by free blacks on McGuire's Hill at the mouth of Becks Run in Arlington Heights.

The greater Pittsburgh area was the birthplace or long-time residence of several Union army and navy officers, as well as some leading politicians of the era.

Other important personalities of the Civil War born in the immediate Pittsburgh area included Col. Daniel Leasure, Congressman Robert McKnight, industrialist William Metcalf, and Brig.