Mary Dougherty

During spring semester, while Professor Sheriff and I were discussing different directions I could take this project, she mentioned looking into the women who worked at federal arsenals in the north, particularly Alleghany Arsenal.  I didn't find any arsenal workers while I was putting together my list of pensioners, but today, I found Mrs. Mary Dougherty.
Mary Dougherty moved to Washington, D.C. with her family in 1863.  Her husband, Daniel, enlisted in the 34th NJ Volunteers shortly after, and Dougherty landed a job at the Washington Arsenal.  Then, on June 17, 1864, an explosion rocked the arsenal.  The newspaper articles reporting the event paint a nauseating picture, though luckily it didn't reach the level of the Allegheny Explosion in '62: (http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/newspaper-clips-1860-1869#june20a).  19 women were killed, and dozens more severely burned.  Dougherty herself was severely burned, and "internally injured, besides being mentally injured by the fall from the height to which I was thrown through the force of the explosion.  My flesh was burned, as scars will show, and I inhaled the fire.  My collar bone was also broken.  I was unconscious when found and became insane from the injuries received" for four years.  And Dougherty's problems did not end there.  Her eldest son, who worked in the navy yard, was killed by machinery some time after.  Her next son went missing on the third day of the grand review of the Army after the close of the war--Dougherty insisted he was "stolen by an officer of the Army."  Then, her husband deserted her because of her injuries.  Assuming that he was dead, Dougherty applied for and was granted a widow's pension in 1878.  But a few months later, the pension was canceled because David was not, in fact, dead, and had just put in an application of his own.
Oi...
The one thing Dougherty seemed to have going for her was connections in high places.  Those connections, including Admiral David Porter, Commodore Nicholson, Rev. Leonard, and George Bancroft, a former Sec. of the Navy., put together a petition to Congress on her behalf, testifying to her integrity and the merits of her claim as well as her crippled condition.  Congress granted Dougherty a $12 pension on March 8, 1888 based on her service at the Arsenal and her injury in the line of duty.  After all that woman went through, I think it was the least they could do.