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Salt was a crucial resource during the American Civil War.It not only preserved food in the days before refrigeration, but was also vital in the curing of leather. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman once said that "salt is eminently contraband", as an army that has salt can adequately feed its men.
It was often necessary for soldiers to supplement their diets on their own. Soldiers could obtain a greater variety of foods by foraging and/or raiding; receiving food packages from their families; or purchasing from sutlers. [2] However once the rations were delivered, there were no trained cooks assigned to prepare food for the troops.
The Act establishing the Nitre and Mining Bureau by the Confederate Congress stated: "That said bureau shall consist of one lieutenant colonel as superintendent, three majors as assistant superintendents, six captains and ten lieutenants, in which shall be included the officers of the present nitre corps, who shall have the same pay and allowances prescribed for officers of cavalry of the same ...
Saltpeter Mine Ruins in Mammoth Cave. The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in the fields prepared for that purpose beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until the leaching process did its job; after a certain time, operators gathered the saltpeter that "came out" to the ground surface by efflorescence.
But suffice it to say that of 900-some soldiers who marched out of the Great Circle Fairgrounds where they trained as 1862 began, there were no more than 300 of those original troops left by the ...
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Averell achieved an objective of destroying the saltpeter works in Pendleton County. He also destroyed the Confederate Camp Northwest, including buildings, wagons, supplies, and weapons. A second saltpeter works was destroyed in Virginia. The fact that his brigade escaped from deep in Confederate territory is a testament to his ability. [120]
The cave was used since before 1835 as a source for nitre (saltpeter) for the manufacture of gunpowder. During the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers under the command of General Robert E. Lee again mined the cave for nitre. The cave today has the nation's largest collection of Civil War-era saltpeter hoppers.