The Powder Magazine
This crater marks the site of the powder magazine. The underground structure was 40 feet long, 12 feet high and 12 feet wide. It was covered with 15 feet of earth to protect it from enemy fire. Some 20 tons of gunpowder and ammunition were stored here during the battle.
At midnight, the defenders silently evacuated the fort. Equipment that could not be taken was piled against the magazine and the Union dead were laid nearby. An hour later a party of volunteers lit a fuse to the magazine and galloped for safety.
"...suddenly the heavens were lighted up by a grand column of fire ascending hundreds of feet... and making the whole region reverberate with a sound as though a mighty thunderbolt had riven Pilot Knob..."
The startled Confederates did not realize that the fort had been evacuated. Maj. Gen. Price presumed that an accident had ignited the magazine and that the fort would surrender in the morning.
Marker can be reached from the intersection of Main Street and Maple Street (Missouri Highway 221), on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
