Florida's Salt of the Earth: Confederate Salt Works History

Salt of the Earth

By Michelle McMillan Kirby

All Rights Reserved®

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)

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 6^th 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).

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.

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).

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).

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.