This slim volume tells the tale of three arsenals that exploded during the height of the Civil War, causing multiple deaths and great concern among the area residents who thought the enemy was on their doorstep. Coming from the Pittsburgh area I was surprised to see that was the first, and most damaging explosion. The author includes interesting sidebars and a lengthy bibliography. There are three times the amount of citations for Pittsburgh as either of the other two cities even though the text of the book seems to be evenly divided. What I don't understand is the bibliographic section on women and child labor. Those books discuss topics that occurred well after the civil war and although interesting, seem out of place in this book. ( )

GUNPOWDER GIRLS by Tanya Anderson tells the tragic story of 140 women and girls who were killed in arsenal explosions during the Civil War.

This quick-read is told in three parts including the catastrophes at Allegheny Arsenal, Confederate States Laboratory, and Washington Arsenal. The author weaves in primary source materials and interesting informational pages to bring the events to life for middle and high school readers. The book includes an epilogue, author’s note, endnotes, bibliography, recommended readings, and index.

Librarians will find this book to be a welcome addition to the history collection. Pair it with other little-known events in the American Civil War. Or, connect it with other tragedies in women’s history.

Published by Quindaro Press October 11, 2016. ARC from the publisher. ( )

Gunpowder Girls is a nonfiction account of three tragedies at ammunition arsenals during the U.S. Civil War. Since many of the men were away fighting, the arsenals were staffed mostly by women and girls who worked in dangerous conditions. In the three disasters described in this book, the materials used to make the ammunition was accidentally set off resulting in explosions that took many lives and injured many others. This book is written for a middle school audience. It gives great information about the role of these women and their work places in our history. The author refers to primary sources and census records for much of the information and includes asides about related subjects such as Abraham Lincoln, the role of African Americans in the Civil War and how ammunitions are built. I would have liked more information about some of the women mentioned, but perhaps such information is not available. I would recommend this book to kids interested in history.

I received a copy of this book free from the Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This is an excellent nonfiction book for teens and adults, about a little-known aspect of the Civil War: that many girls and women worked in ammunition arsenals for both North and South. The author gives historical background for why girls and women needed jobs to support their families during the war, and describes in detail the nature of the work, which was also best done by small delicate hands: filling gunpowder cartridges, "choking" them (tying the ends of the paper cartridges closed), varnishing and packaging "friction primers" for cannons, and so forth. Many of these girls were only 12 or 13, were from poor immigrant families, and were grateful for the 12-hour workday with meager wages. Safety was always emphasized, and the (male) bosses were constantly supervising and had boys sweeping up loose gunpowder. But, when 100 of them were crammed into one room that also housed casks of gunpowder, and there was an accidental spark....

This book tells the stories of three such tragic accidents at ammunition arsenals, one each in Pittsburgh, PA, Richmond, VA and Washington, D.C. The author does not shy away from some morbid details of the injuries and deaths, but does not go into excessive detail. Her meticulous research shows in the extensive endnotes and bibliography, use of contemporary photos and maps of the arsenals, and in how she briefly introduces many of the girls by name, giving them some depth as real people in a real situation. The text gives the story of what happened before, during and after each accident, including investigations and memorials, in clear and precise prose. And a complete-as-possible listing of the victims is included, again, to humanize them and to help the reader relate to the real costs of the accidents. I found this to be a fascinating book, and even having read a fair amount of Civil War history I learned a lot from the factual sidebars and the author's note relating how she decided to write this particular topic and how researching these girls made her know them and sympathize with them. Recommended for readers middle school and up. ( )