Shortly before noon on Friday, June 17, 1864 an explosion ripped through a room in one of the buildings at the U.S. Arsenal (on the grounds of what is now Ft. McNair) where 30 women were at work making cartridges for small arms. The fire that resulted killed seventeen young women outright and four others later died of their wounds.

On Sunday, June 19, 1864 a funeral procession more than a mile in length (with President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton as chief mourners) followed the coffins from the Arsenal to Congressional Cemetery where 16 of the victims were buried (a 17th, Pinkey Scott, in early July). The remains of Melissa Adams, Emma J. Baird, Lizzie Brahler, Kate Branahan, Elizabeth Brannagan, Mary Burroughs, Emily Collins, Susan Harris, Eliza Lacy, Louisa Lloyd, Julia McEwen, Ellen Roche, Pinkey Scott, Mrs. W.E. Tippett and Maggie Yonson lie beneath the monument. The remains of Annie Bache (R92 S180) and Sallie McElfresh (R83 S93) rest in family plots. Smaller processions followed the remains of four victims -- Johannah Connor, Bridget Dunn, Catherine Horan and Catherine Hull -- to Mt. Olivet.

Citizens of Washington contributed $3,000 for the monument which was carved by the Irish sculptor, Lot Flannery, and dedicated one year after the accident.