Death after the War

THE EXPLOSION AT MOBILE.

ON Thursday, May 25, a terrible explosion, involving
great loss of life and property, occurred at
Mobile. We illustrate this event on page 396.
About half past two in the afternoon the main
Ordnance Depot of the Government, on the corner
of Lipscomb and Commerce streets, was blown up.
Eight squares of buildings were demolished by the
violence of the shock. It is estimated that the
number of persons killed will reach fully two hundred.
This will appear no large estimate when it
is considered that nearly all tho work-shops, foundries,
cotton-presses, etc., which covered the vast
area destroyed, were employing quite a number of
men. A large number of persons were wounded.
A number of the bodies recovered were so mutilated
that recognition was impossible. Major
SLOUGH estimates the amount of cotton destroyed
at from eight to ten thousand bales: nearly all this
belonged to private citizens.
The noise of the explosion was so great as to be
heard at the distance of forty miles from tho city.
The steamers in the river suffered greatly from the
shock, and a number of persons were killed. Two
steamers were destroyed.
A man named WALL has been arrested at Mobile
charged with being implicated in the explosion.
He states that he and two other men, on the night
previous to the explosion, placed torpedoes between
the buildings containing the powder; that the work
was performed under the direction of a rebel major,
who threatened them with instant death if they
disobeyed or offered to resist; and that the major
afterward lighted the fuse of the shell connected
with the infernal arrangement. Torpedoes have
also been discovered in the Custom-house, so
arranged to explode on opening the doors

-Harpers Weekly, June 24, 1865