Salt of the Earth
By Michelle McMillan Kirby
All Rights Reserved®
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| Salt Kettle from Cedar Key |
Salt was a vital commodity for the
Confederacy and the salt works of the Big Bend and Panhandle coast were
instrumental to keeping the Confederate armies in the field. Salt was necessary
for the preservation of meat, particularly pork which was shipped out of
Jackson, Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson and Madison Counties in massive amounts.
September 8, 1862
Boat crews from the USS Kingfisher
raided salt works on St. Joseph Bay. Civilian salt makers were shelled by the
U.S. sailors. Casualties are unknown. Gunpowder was used to blow up the kettles
and furnaces of the salt works, which were producing an estimated 200 bushels
of salt per day. (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p. 310 & 316)
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| USS Kingfisher |
September 11, 1862
Boat crews from USS Sagamore
attacked salt works at St. Andrew Bay capable of producing 216 bushels of salt
per day. (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p.
316) |
| USS Sagamore |
October 4 & 6, 1862
Boat crews from USS Somerset
destroy salt works at No. 4 (near Cedar Key). Civilian salt makers were shelled
with one dozen cannon shots until they surrendered. When the sailors arrived onshore, they found
they had shelled a group of women and children. Outraged Confederates arrived
on the scene and opened fire, driving off the U.S. sailors, two of whom were
dangerously wounded. Three others received lesser wounds. The sailors returned
on October 6th and destroyed 50-60 salt boilers, some large enough
to make 5 bushels at a time. It was estimated that the salt works were
producing 150 bushels of salt per day. (ORN,
Series I, Volume 17, pp. 316-317).
October 26, 1862
The U.S. Navy obtained information that the destruction of
the salt works at St. Joseph Bay on September 8, 1862, had inflicted a heavy
blow on the Confederacy. The salt works were reported to be the main source of
government salt for Florida and Georgia and their destruction “was a greater
injury to the rebels than if we had captured 20,000 prisoners.” (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p. 323).
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| Saltworks at St. Joseph's Bay |
January 9, 1863
Boat crews from the USS Ethan
Allen destroyed salt works capable of producing 75 bushels per day on St.
Joseph Bay. The Confederates had been able to resume salt production on St.
Joseph Bay in less than four months following the first destruction of salt
works there in September 1862. (ORN,
Series I, Volume 17, p. 350.
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| USS Ehtan Allen |
June 14, 1863
Boat crews from USS Somerset
destroyed salt works at “Alligator Bay” (Alligator Point) at the East Pass of
St. George’s Sound after shelling the civilians working there. It took 65 seamen
and marines all day to use sledge hammers to break up the salt boilers. The
salt works were found to be extremely large and 65 salt kettles, 30 huts and
houses and more than 200 bushels of salt were destroyed at four separate
locations. (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p.
469-471).
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| Alligator Bay |
July 15, 1863
Eight boat crews from the USS Somerset and USS Stars and
Stripes attacked the salt works on Marsh’s Island near the mouth of the
Ochlockonee River. They destroyed 50 boilers and associated buildings.
(ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p. 493).
December 2, 10 and 18, 1863
A massive operation was launched by sailors from the USS Restless, USS Caroline and USS Bloomer
to destroy salt works at Lake Ocala and St. Andrew Bay. Over three days, the
U.S. sailors destroyed 6 steamboat boilers, cut in half, being used as salt
boilers, and 422 large salt boilers, as well as 407 salt kettles, 7 flatboats,
327 buildings, 27 wagons and 2,000 bushels of salt. The damage was estimated at
$3,000,000. The sailors also burned the
town of St. Andrews (today’s Panama City) to the ground, destroying 32
houses. Despite the destruction of more
than 200 salt works, the sailors reported that 100 more remained in operation.
The bay was reported to be lined for 7 miles by government and private salt
works, all in operation. (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p. 594-598).
January 9, 1864
Despite the more than $3,000,000 in damage done to the St.
Andrew Bay salt works in December 1863, they were reported back in operation
less than one month later. (ORN, Series
I, Volume 17, p. 622).
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| Michelle McMillan Kirby - St. Andrews Bay - 2012 |
February 9 & 17, 1864
The U.S. Navy again attacked the salt works on St. Andrew Bay
and West Bay near present-day Panama City. Salt boilers and kettles with a
total capacity of 26,706 gallons per day were destroyed. The salt works was
owned by the Confederate government and covered one-half square mile with the
boilers and kettles alone valued at $146,883. The U.S. Navy estimated that the
salt works could produce 2,500 bushels of salt per day. (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p. 646).
April 2 & 12, 1864
Although they had already been destroyed twice before, the
massive Confederate salt works at St. Andrew Bay were destroyed again by the
U.S. Navy. (ORN, Series I, Volume 17, p. 677).
The St. Andrew Bay salt works were
rebuilt again and destroyed again in May 1864, October 1864, November 1864 and February 1865.
By the end of the war, salt in the
Confederacy was selling for $30-$50 per bushel. With their capacity of making
over 2,000 bushels of salt per day, the salt works of St. Andrew Bay were
capable of producing $1,800,000 to $3,600,000 worth of salt per month.
It is believed that from May 1863-May
1865, the massive government and private salt works at St. Andrew Bay produced
a minimum of 2,000 bushels of salt per month. The total output of the salt
works, excluding salt known to have been destroyed by the U.S. Navy, was a
minimum of 1,440,000 bushels of salt for use in the Confederacy. The majority
of it was used to preserve meat. The St. Andrew Bay salt works almost exclusively
– with help from other smaller operations elsewhere in Florida, Georgia and
Alabama – kept the Army of the Tennessee in the field for the last two years of
the war.
Historian William Watson Davis
estimated in The Civil War and
Reconstruction in Florida (Columbia University, 1913, pp. 203-205) that
$10,000,000 was invested in the salt works that operated along Florida’s Gulf
Coast from St. Andrew Bay to Apalachee Bay. As many as 5,000 men were working
these salt works by late 1864, roughly the same number as the total strength of
the Confederate army at the Battle of Olustee.
