Pittsburgh wasn't a battleground during the Civil War, but it played an integral role in the conflict as a staging area and a supplier for the Union army and navy.
“For quite the entire period of the war, Pittsburgh was literally a camp and an arsenal,” newspaper publisher George H. Thurston wrote in 1876.
The city's mills and factories armed the Union with cannons and ammunition, providing iron cladding for its warships and uniforms, blankets and other equipment for its troops. Local shipyards produced five ironclads and five ships equipped with rams to sink Confederate ships and 100 mortar boats designed to bombard enemy fortifications.
“But few hours of the day or night were without the passage of bodies of troops, or was the roll of the drum silent,” Thurston wrote.
Facts, dates and numbers illustrating Pittsburgh's involvement in the war:
22: Number of soldiers from Allegheny County awarded the Medal of Honor for their Civil War service.
Dec. 30, 1860: Pittsburgh residents gather to hinder U.S. troops under orders from the secretary of War — soon to be a Confederate general — to send 124 cannons from the Allegheny Arsenal to Mississippi and Texas. In response to an urgent message from Pittsburgh, President Buchanan rescinded the order several days later.
William Montgomery: The 15-year-old Pittsburgh boy was fatally wounded by a cannon shot at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, after a cease-fire was declared as a prelude to Lee's surrender. He was the last casualty of the Army of the Potomac.
25,930: At least this many men from Allegheny County served in the Union army and navy. About 4,000 died of wounds or disease. About 344,400 men from Pennsylvania served in Union forces with at least 33,183 dying.
101.5 million: Based on partial records, the Allegheny Arsenal produced at least that many rounds of small arms ammunition. Three explosions on Sept. 17, 1862, killed 78 workers, mostly women and girls.
The Subsistence Committee: The group fed 469,745 soldiers who passed through the city between July 26, 1861, and January 1866, when it dissolved.
June 1861 and June 1862: Pittsburgh companies sewed 14,173 greatcoats, 22,000 pantaloons, 19,778 blankets and 1,000 uniform coats.
79,460: The number of sick and wounded soldiers the Soldiers Home treated — including Confederate prisoners of war — during the war.
750: At least this many steamboats, ferry boats and barges were built in local shipyards for the war effort.
Braced for attack: With the Confederate army massing for an invasion of Pennsylvania in summer 1863 and cavalry raids coming as close as McConnellsburg and Morgantown, W.Va., most city businesses shut down and their workers spent about three weeks building 12 miles of earthworks around the city.
2,281: Fort Pitt Foundry produced at least this many heavy artillery pieces for the Union army and navy, about 60 percent of their total heavy armament. In 1861, the foundry produced at least 17,230 artillery rounds.
Sources: “Under the Maltese Cross, Antietam to Appomattox: The Loyal Uprising in Western Pennsylvania, 1861 - 1865,” narrated by the rank and file of the 155th Pennsylvania Regiment; “Allegheny County's Hundred Years” and “Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the Centennial Year” by George H. Thurston; “Pittsburgh During the American Civil War, 1860-1865,” by Arthur B. Fox.
Brian Bowling is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Contact him at 412-325-4301 at bbowling@tribweb.com.
