"Petersburg"

Sheet music, "Petersburg," words by E. D. Macfee; music by W. J. Burleigh (Petersburg, c. 1916)

This sheet music, c. 1916, features a song about the Dupont guncotton (explosive) plant in Hopewell, Virginia, which prospered from Allied war orders even before the United States joined the war in 1917. Called "the toughest town north of hell," Hopewell grew rapidly from 210 to 40,000 inhabitants after Dupont built the smokeless powder plant.

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