An ordnance depot or "magazine" explodes on…

An ordnance depot or "magazine" explodes on May 25 in Mobile, Alabama, killing some three hundred persons, just after the end of the American Civil War, during the occupation of Mobile by victorious Federal troops.

The depot is a warehouse on Beauregard Street, where the troops had stacked some 200 tons of shells and powder.

Some time in the afternoon of May 25, a cloud of black smoke rises into the air and the ground begins to rumble.

Flames shoot up into the sky and bursting shells are heard throughout the city.

In the nearby Mobile River, two ships sink, and a man standing on a wharf is blown into the river.

Several houses collapse from the concussion.

On the heels of the explosion come fires, which burn until the entire northern part of Mobile lies in smoking ruins.

A huge hole where the warehouse once stood will remain for many years, a reminder of the disaster.

The exact cause of the magazine explosion will never be determined.

Some northern newspapers try to pin the blame on an imagined gang of unreconstructed Confederate officers.

Most people, though, accept that it was the result of simple carelessness on the part of workers handling wheelbarrows full of live ammunition.