Battle Creek Cave confederate nitre works

BATTLE CREEK CAVE CONFEDERATE NITRE WORKS
Marion O. Smith

After Nickajack Cave, Marion County, Tennessee’s most important Civil War niter mining
cite was Monteagle Saltpeter Cave, which the Confederates knew as Battie Creek Cave. Located
in Cave Cove, below the “west” bound lane of Interstate Twenty-four, some four miles southeast of
Monteagle, it may be the cave which about 1816 the Cherokees permitted a white man named
McMase to mine. After the Indians were pushed out reputedly other “white settlers worked it
intermittently.”

The primary entrance is thirty feet above the cove’s main streambed, and is fifteen feet wide
and eight feet high. In 1899 it was described as “large as . . . an old-fashioned farm door” where “A
double team with a big load of hay could be driven into it with ease.” As of then the cave’s many
avenues had “never been counted or measured.” Some of the “passages . . . were partly obstructed
with piles of boulders, ranging in size from a potato to a large watermelon. These had been culled
out of the clay when leaching it for the saltpetre.” The floor still bore “the mark of the Hi... tale
side walls show the depth of clay that was removed. In some places it is but a foot or two, in others
it is five and six feet. Pieces of the old wooden hoppers and water pipes are yet lying, half buried
in the clay.’”

Thomas L. Bailey visited Monteagle Saltpeter in 1917 while conducting a state survey for
nitrate caves. At that time it was “100 yards from a small farmhouse” and owned by James H.
Shetter (1875-1930):

There are two mouths about 200 yards [actually closer to 230 feet] apart... . The
cave is dry. The main part averages 30 or 40 feet in width and 15 or 20 feet in height.
There are a number of side passages, some of which are almost as large as the main cave,
while others are very narrow. A white crust of gypsum incrusts partially all the walls. The
cave is over 2 miles long and winds about very much. The earth averages 5 or 6 feet in
thickness, though many banks are 15 feet or more. There are at least 25 or 30 old hoppers
that were used in obtaining the niter . . . and three or four tons of earth are heaped up in each
ofthem. There are many evidences of digging. This earth is exceedingly dry and dusty. ...
There are no stalagmites or stalactites, but the walls and roof are very irregular in places.
The passages are so numerous and intricate that it is very easy to get lost in them.’

By the early 1960s Chattanooga caver Ted Hoge reported that the cave “has been visited
often and the walls are smoked all over with names and pictures by earlier visitors. It also appears
as if the cave has been used for a city dump, from the numerous cans, bottles and papers all over the
floor.” In addition, it had been designated a fallout shelter “with a rated capacity of 640 people.”
By 1977, members of the Chattanooga Grotto, led by Rick Buice, surveyed the cave and determined
its length was 6,086 feet, far less than Bailey’s estimate.”

It seems probable that the Confederate mining of Monteagle Saltpeter/Battle Creek Cave was
begun by “Capt. Marr.” Many years later this name was remembered by a wartime worker as one
of the superintendents at the cave. In early July and late August 1861 George W.L. Marr (¢1834-
1877) of Clarksville, Tennessee, received $500 and $300 advances by the State Military and
Financial Board to manufacture saltpeter. On the first day of 1862 he delivered 1,255 pounds at forty
cents each to the Confederate ordnance officer at Nashville. On February 4, 1863, Marr was arrested

by the Federals and held prisoner in Louisville and at the penitentiary at Nashville. The succeeding
June 2 he wrote Military Governor Andrew Johnson asking for a trial. He stated he was charged
with “acting in the capacity of Conscript officer” and “dealing in Salt Petre.” His explanation about
the latter was vague: “Two years ago I had a surplus of negro labor[.] I worked them in Salt Peter
Cave in East Tennessee for their support[.] The product of the labor I sold to the person paying the
highest price for it[.]” A little over a month later he escaped.

Marr was a saltpeter contractor for the state and apparently briefly the same to the
Confederate government. Afterwords, J une-November 1862, he hired two slaves to the Nitre
Bureau. One of them, Henry, worked at Battle Creek Cave September-October.°

During much of the spring and summer of 1862 the Union army occupied northern Alabama
and much of middle Tennessee, including portions of Marion County. But by early September
Confederate military movements forced the Federals to fall back to Nashville. When that happened,
the Nitre Bureau began to directly work Battle Creek Cave.

Local citizens aided in the establishment and support of nearly all Confederate government
cave operations. This was certainly true for Battle Creek Cave. James J. Brown (b. c1821), a farmer
who lived near the cave, was especially helpful. September 12-30 and 17-30, 1862, he boarded two
employees and one government horse at fifty cents each per day. At the time there were “not
sufficient accomodations at the works to board either all the men or Horses.” The same month
Brown received three dollars per diem “for 8 days Hauling of Troughs Hoppers &c” at the cave, and
sold 400 pounds flour and 373 pounds bacon for subsistence of the hands, hauling the same from
Pelham, thirty-one miles, for ten dollars. During November he provided sixteen bushels of corn for
feeding the stock, a thousand feet of plank “for Building Shanties,” and seventy-nine pounds lard
for burning in lamps. On February 3, 1863, at the rate of five cents, he sold 197 pounds pork for
consumption by the laborers. December 1862, February and April 1863, lard for the lamps was also
supplied by James T. Klepper/Clepper (1793-1880), Jacob M. Tate (1822-1863), and Abraham
Bowers, 152%, 271, and 147 pounds respectively. Additional subsistence, eighty bushels corn, fifty
pounds bacon, and thirteen bushels meal was contributed September 20, 1862, and February 4,
1863, by William L. Hargis and Tate. On January 8 Hargis, for $100, sold “33% Cords wood... for
furnaces” at the cave, and in February James Jackson (b. c1831) shoed mules and repaired wagons
and tools. Erasmus Alley (c1801-1878), a farmer near the mouth of Battle Creek and Tennessee
River Ferryman, on March 20, 1863, made available three wheelbarrows for carrying earth at the
cave.’

Chattanooga merchant Daniel P. Kaylor (c1826-//1 880) on October 10 sold fifty cups and
plates, four dishes, four pans, all made of tin, plus four pots and seven ovens “for the use of Laborers
at Battle Creek Cave.” A month later, Thomas K. Warnacut (c1825/29-711 870), another Hamilton
County businessman, provided another dozen tin cups and two hoes for the cave.®

Eight payrolls between September 1862 and June 1863 have survived. Although some rolls
are incomplete, the monthly white workers at Battle Creek Cave seemed to number from fifteen to
fifty-four persons. Many of the laborers were local citizens, but the more responsible positions were
held by Georgians who had been assigned to the Nitre Bureau months earlier. some names have a
variety of spellings and others that did not have suspect spellings:

J. Adams laborer May-June 1863
J.H. Abercrombie/bey laborer Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863
boiler & night watchman May 1863

H. Abercromby
D.M. Anderson

H. Anderson

J. Anderson
William Anderson
S. Ayers/Ayres

John Barnes
LP. Baxter
SG; Daxter

W. Blair

J. B. Blakley
John Bowers
David Burdwell

J. Castleberry
J.M. Castleberry
T. Castleberry

T. F. Cuningham/

night watchman

cook

boss carpenter
superintendent

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer

June 1863

May 1863

Sept. 1862

Oct. 1862-Feb. 1863
Oct.-Dec. 1862

Nov.-Dec. 1862

June 1863

Oct. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Oct. 1862

Jan., May 1863

Dec. 1862-Jan.; May-June
1863

Oct. 1862

Oct.-Nov. 1862

Dec. 1862-Jan.; June 1863
Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Oct. 1862-Jan. 1863

Oct. 1862-Jan. 1863

Oct., Dec. 1862-Jan. 1863

Cunnigam/Kunningham/

Kinningham laborer Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Dec. 1862-Jan. 1863

wagon & team Feb.; May-June 1863

James Daniel wagon team & driver

James Denney
E. Floid/Floyd

J.W. Foster

H. Garden/Gorden
J.T. Garitson
W.H. Garitson

E. Gilliam

G.H. Gilliam

L. Gilliam

M. Gilliam

W. Gilliam

H.B. Godby

laborer
laborer
laborer

bricklayer
boss carpenter
cave boss

laborer
laborer
laborer
cook
laborer
cook

cook & asst.

laborer

boss boiler

Feb.; June 1863

Oct.-Feb. 1863

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Sept. 1862

Oct. 1862

Nov. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Jan.-Feb. 1863

Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

Dec. 1862; Feb. 1863

Oct. 1862-Feb.; June 1863
Jan. 1863

Oct. 1862

Oct. 1862; Feb. 1863
Nov.-Dec. 1862; Feb.; May-
June 1863

J.M. Goss
J.G. Hargis

William Hargis

John Hawkins
S.M. Hawkins

Alex Henley
John Henley
T.W. Henley
W.M. Henley

D. Hillen
William Hillen
J.A./A.J. Hilton
W./W.M. Howell
I. Irving

laborer
laborer

laborer

laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

Sept.-Oct. 1862

Oct.: Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-
June 1863

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Nov.-Dec. 1862

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Sept.-Nov. 1862; June 1863
Sept. 1862

Sept. 1862

Nov. 1862

Sept. 1862

Sept. 1862

Dec. 1862-Jan.; June 1863
Oct.-Nov. 1862

Dec. 1862

C.A. James carpenter Sept.-Nov. 1862
watchman Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

R.T. Little
Thomas Long

William Lynch
J. McBee

W. McGrah
Saml. Martin

William Martin
J.H./J.M./John Miller

James M. Monk
John Morgan
Joseph Norman
A.R. Oliver

W. Pealins

R.B. Person/Pearson
Dd, 208s

R.W. Read
D. S. Reynolds
D.T. Reynolds

wood boss May-June 1863

laborer

laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

wood boss

laborer

laborer

superintendent
blacksmith

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Oot.-Nov.. 1862; Jan.-Feb.
1863

Jan. 1863

May-June 1863

Dec. 1862

Sept.-Oct. 1862

Nov.-Dec. 1862; Feb. 1863
Sept. 1862-Jan.; May-June
1863

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Feb.; May-June 1863

June 1863

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May 1863
Oct.-Nov. 1862

Oct. 1862

Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

Oct. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Sept. 1862

Oct.-Dec. 1862; Feb. 1863
Nov. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

J.G. Reynolds
J.P. Reynolds

P.D. Reynolds

W.M. Reynolds

E. Sammers/Sommers

H.H. Sherrill
L.H: Sherrill

W.N. Sherrill
G.A. Simpson
M. Simpson
A. Speagle
John/J.K. Tate

G. Taylor

G. Thomas
J.M. Thomas
R. Thompson
W. Thompson

Cl. Travis
M.A. Travis
Mathew Trussell

N. Trussell
Wesley Trussell
A. Tucker

J. Walden

E. H. Williams
Joseph Williams
E.W. Woodall
W. Park Woodall
B.H. Wooten
Thomas Wooten

laborer
laborer

laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
cook

laborer
laborer

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer

laborer
cook
laborer

cook

laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
laborer
boss

superintendent

laborer
laborer

Nov. 1862-Feb.; May 1863
Nov. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Nov. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Oct. 1862-Feb. 1863

Oct. 1862

Dec. 1562

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Dec. 1862-Jan.; June 1863
Oct. 1862-Feb. 1863

Oct.; Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863
Jan.-Feb.; May-June 1863
Oct.-Dec. 1862; Feb.; May-
June 1863

Oct. 1862

Oct. 1862

Oct. 1862

Jan.-Feb. 1863

Oct.-Dec. 1862; May-June
1863

Oct. 1862

Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

Dec. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863

Oct. 1862

Jan.-Feb. 1863

Oct. 1862; Feb.; June 1863
Sept.-Oct. 1862

Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

Oct. 1862

Sept. 1862

Sept. 1862

Dec. 1862-Feb. 1863

Oct. 1862-Feb.; May-June
1863’

Some employees of Battle Creek Cave have been identified, although no effort has been
made to learn about all. William Park Woodall (1835-1911), a Bartow (formerly Cass) County,
Georgia, farmer, in June and July 1862 was successively superintendent of Lookout Cave, Hamilton
County, Tennessee, and Bartow (Kingston Saltpeter) Cave, Bartow County, Georgia. During Spring
1863 he enlisted in Company H. 1* Georgia State Line and served until the end of the war. David
M. Anderson (c1832-f11880), a Henry County, Georgia, farmer, was a laborer, June1862, and boss,
July and September (six days) 1862, at Bartow Cave; carpenter May-August 1863 at Cherokee

AIT

Potash Works, Cherokee County, Georgia, and camp near Kingston, Georgia, October 1863; wood
foreman November-December 1863, commissary January 1864, and overseer of slaves May-June
1864 at Blue Mountain (Lady- Weaver) Cave, Calhoun County, Alabama; and carpenter, February-
April 1864, and unknown assignment, July 28, September 1864, at Cedar Mountain (Horse) Cave,
Blount County, Alabama. James M. Monk (b. c1834), a Heard County, Georgia, farmer, was a
laborer at Bartow Cave, June-July 1863; and superintendent of operations at Nickajack Cave,
September 1862-February 1863; the camp near Kingston, October 1863; Little River (Daniel) Cave,
Cherokee County, Alabama, November 1863-January 1864; and Little Warrior (Crump/Second)
Cave, Blount County, Alabama, July 1864. James Daniel (1832-1919) of LaGrange, Georgia, was
detailed in the Nitre service June 1862 under agent Logan E. Bleckley. He provided a team and
teamster for Bartow Cave, July 1862; labored at the camp near Kingston, October 1863; and at Blue
Mountain Cave, November 1863, June-July 1864. In his pension application he claimed he was at
Blue Mountain until May 1865. James H. Abercrombie (c1840-/11920), of Carroll County, Georgia,
was a laborer at Ringgold Cave, Catoosa County, Georgia, May-June 1862; Nickajack Cave, July
1863; camp near Kingston, October 1863; Little River Cave, November 1863-January 1864; and
Blue Mountain Cave, June 1864; and boiler at Little River Cave, February-May 1864 and Little
Warrior Cave, July 1864. He also declared he was at Blue Mountain at the conclusion of the war.
Henry B. Godby (c1832/35-f11913) before the war lived in Fayetteville, Georgia, where he was listed
as a M.D. He was a laborer at Ringgold Cave, May-June 1862; boss boiler at Nickajack Cave, July
1863; watchman at Blue Mountain Cave, November-December 1863; and boiler at Blue Mountain
Cave, January, March-April, June 1864; Prater Cave, Alabama, April (eleven days)-May 1864; and
Little Warrior Cave, July 1864. Soon afterwards he visited his home and when Atlanta fell he was
captured near what is now College Park, Georgia. In 1913 he was a resident of Campbell County,
Georgia. E.W. Woodall was a laborer, June 1862; boss, July 1862; and boss boiler (first two days),
September 1862 at Bartow Cave; and superintendent of Lookout Cave December 1862-January and
March 1863. Then through August 1863 he was an assistant superintendent in the third division of
the Eighth Nitre District, consisting of Rhea, Bledsoe, Meigs, McMinn, and Bradley counties,
Tennessee, with his office in Athens. J. W. Foster was a laborer, June 1862, and brickmason, July
1862 at Bartow Cave; laborer, July 1863, and brickmason, August 1863 at Cherokee Potash Works;
Trenton (Howards Waterfall) Cave, Dade County, Georgia, November 12-18, 1863; Blue Mountain
Cave, November 1863 and March1864; and at Prater Cave, April 1864. Columbus A. James was
carpenter at Bartow Cave, July 1862; laborer at camp near Kingston; laborer, November 1863 and
February-May 1864, and carpenter, December 1863-January 1864 at Little River Cave; laborer at
Blue Mountain Cave, June-July 1864; and July 28, September 1864 an employee of unknown
capacity at Cedar Mountain Cave. JM. Goss was a laborer, June 1862 at Bartow Cave; and Cherokee
Potash works, November 1862, January-March, May 1863. J./Jack/G.J./General J. Walden was a
laborer at Cherokee Potash Works, July-August 1863; camp near Kingston, October 1863; Blue
Mountain Cave, November (five days) 1863, and January 1864; Big Spring (Guntersville Caverns)
Cave, Marshall County, Alabama, February-June 1864, and Little Warrior Cave, July 1864. Samuel
Martin (1835/36-1868) and William H. Martin (1828-1908) were brothers and farmers in Cave Cove
near Battle Creek Cave. They married twin sisters, Eliza and Sarah Hargis. Samuel was later borne
on the rolls of Company L, 35™ Tennessee Infantry, CSA, although it was reported in mid-1863 he
was absent sick and had never been “able for duty.” Family tradition indicates he was imprisoned
by the Federals the last year of the war. William Lee Hargis (1826-11898) was a carpenter before
the war and afterwards a Methodist minister. In July 1863 he was a laborer twelve and a half days

at Nickajack Cave. Other Marion Countians employed at the cave were Wesley (b. c1826), Matthew
(b. c1826), and Nancy (b. c1827) Trussell, Jones/James G. Hargis (b. c1831/32), Josiah Adams (b.
c1838), John K. Tate (1829-1909), James Denny (b. c1844), Alfred Spegle/Speegle (b. c1826),
Lemuel Gilliam (b. 1841), Eprhragm Summers (b. c1830), Benjamin Henry (c1841-f11901), and
Thomas B. Wooten (1839-1903), John Barnes (b. c1843), and Hezekiah Anderson (b. c1834), the
majority of whom were farmers. Benjamin H. Wooten was later a Confederate soldier. He was
captured and imprisoned at Rock Island, Illinois. After six months he was paroled “and went to the
far West, where he stayed until the close of the war.”

In 1899 Benjamin Henry Wooten, who occasionally guided tourist groups to the cave,
provided information to a newspaper writer about the wartime operation:

The usual number of men working was from twenty-five to thirty. The clay was dug
up with picks and shoveled into great wooden vats or hoppers. Water was then turned on,
and, after filtering through the clay, conducted by rude wooden troughs to the outside,
carrying with it the saltpetre, which it had dissolved from the clay.

A furnace stood about 100 yards from the cave’s mouth. Over it were set six huge
evaporating pans, in which the water was boiled all day, being dipped from pan to pan as
in boiling molasses. When sufficiently reduced, the “lye”... was left to cool, in which
process the mineral crystalized. ... This was skimmed out, dried on acloth, packed in sacks
and carried in wagons to Shell Mound, a distance of twenty-three miles; thence it was
shipped by rail to the powder mills. .. .

The average product of the mine was 1,500 pounds per week. The men’s wages
were $15 per month in Confederate money. All the enormous quantities of water used in
washing the clay was conducted in wooden troughs from the spring, over a mile away from
the cave."

Operations at Battle Creek Cave were abandoned about the end of June or early July 1863.
This was in response to the successful movements of General William S. Rosecrans’s Federal army
against General Braxton Bragg’s Southern forces near Shelbyville and Tullahoma in late June.
During July, 1* to 6" and 28" to 31%, Superintendent James M. Monk received $2.50 a day for
“removing Nitre tools” from the cave “on approach of enemy.” The cave was unmanned when Union
troops did arrive.”

Brigadier General John M. Brannan commanded the Third Division of the Union Fourteenth
Army Corps. On August 18, 1863, his men ascended the plateau and camped at and near what is now
Sewanee. The next day they moved to Sweden’s Cove where the majority of the command waited
until the 22™. Then they again advanced, to the mouth of Battle Creek, where they built a bridge and
marked time until the 31°, when the division began crossing the Tennessee River. Sometime late in
the month General Brannan ordered an expedition to raid “Hargis Cave,” and on the 3 Ll? reported
the result to his superior, Major General George H. Thomas, who in turn informed General
Rosecrans:

A party of mounted men were sent to saltpeter cave and works in Harris’ Cove,
Marion County, Tenn., and destroyed the buildings and apparatus erected there. .. . They
found in and near the cave the following enumerated property, which was destroyed: 7 log
houses, formerly used as offices, barracks of the conscripts, &c; 1 log shed, 7 large furnace-
kettles, 1 bridge, leading from the foot of the hill to the entrance of the cave. They also
destroyed a large number of hoppers (about 40) and troughs, ladders, &c., in the cave. The

7 furnace-kettles were found buried near the entrance of the cave."°

SOURCES

1. Thomas C. Barr, Jr., Caves of Tennessee. Bulletin 64, Tennessee Division of Geology (Nashville, Tenn...
1961), 305; G. Lowry and J. Benge to Return Jonathan Meigs, October 30, 1816, Records of the Cherokee Indian
Agency in Tennessee, RG75 (M208, Roll 7), National Archives; Annie E. Tallon, “Saltpetre Cave Near Monteagle,”
Nashville American, July 7, 1899.

2. Barr, Caves of Tennessee, 305; Nashville American, July 7, 1899.

3. Mary S. Harris and Euline Harris, comps., Marion County Tennessee Cemetery Records (Evansville, Ind.,
1987), 162; Thomas L. Bailey, “Report on the Caves of the Eastern Highland Rim and Cumberland Mountains,” The
Resources of Tennessee, Vol. 8 (April 1918), 106-7. |

4. Limestone Ledger, Vol. 1 (April-May 1963), 10. The map of Monteagle Saltpeter Cave was drawn by Buice
June 1977. The other surveyors were: David Durham, Fran Formby, Ray Lewis, Gerald Moni, and Tom Selman.

5. Nashville American, July 7, 1899; LeRoy P. Graf, Ralph W. Hoskins, and Paul H. Bergeron, eds., The
Papers of Andrew Johnson (16 vols., Knoxville, Tenn., 1967-2000), 6: 236-37; Army of Tennessee Records, Military
Board Record Book, April 24, 1861-January 9, 1862, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, pp. 49, 67, 71,
75; Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, RG109 (M346, Roll 657), National Archives, G.L. Marr
File.

6. Ibid.

7. Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 14, 85, 106, 406, 495, 555, 1007), E. Alley, Abraham Bowers, J.J. Brown,
Wm. L. Hargis, James Jackson, James T. Klepper, Jacob M. Tate Files; 1860 Census, Tenn., Marion, 10™ Dist., 99;
Harris and Harris, Marion County Cemetery Records, 322; Norma D. Hobbs and Sara A. Goins, trans., United States
Census Marion County, Tennessee 1860 (n.p., n.d.), 106; Memorial and Biographical Record (Chicago, 1898), 387;
The Story of Marion County Its People and Places (Dallas, Tex., 1990), 197-98. Klepper’s/Clepper’s correct name was
supposedly P. James. He was born in Washington County, Tennessee, and by 1826 lived near Battle Creek. Sometime
in 1863 he started for Texas where some of his twenty-one children by two wives lived. One son was also named James
(b. 1820).

8. Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 533, 1143), D. Taylor, T.K. Warnacut Files; James L. Douthat, 1/860 Hamilton
County, TN Census (Signal Mountain, Tenn., 1989), 30, 35; Norma D. Hobbs and Sara A. Goins, United States Census
Hamilton County, Tennessee 1880 (n.p., n.d.), 302, 360; Byron H. Sistler and Barbara Sistler, 7880 Census Hamilton
County, Tennessee (Nashville, 1996), 114.

9. Confederate Payrolls, RG109, National Archives.

10. 1850 Census, Ga., Fayette, 29" Dist., 161; (1860), Cass, 1041 Dist. G.M., Cassville P.O., 9; Heard,
Franklin P.O., 783; Fayette, Fayetteville, 99; (1870), Bartow, 144" Subdiv., Pine Log P.O., 38; (1880), Henry, 723 Dist.
G.M., 27; Georgia Confederate Pension Applications, James H. Abercrombie, N.S. Reid, Rachel Robinson, and W.P.
Woodall Files; Mary G. Siniard, Lisa N. Ellis, and Linda W. Trentham, eds., Bartow County, Georgia Formerly Cass
Cemeteries Volume 1 (Alpharetta, Ga., 1993), 103; Confederate Payrolls, Dorothy McClendon, Lillie Lambert, and
Danny Knight, comps., Family, Church, and Community Cemeteries of Troup County, Georgia (LaGrange, Ga., 1990),
34; Shirley M. Gardner, comps., The 1880 Census of Carroll County, Georgia (Cullman, Ala., 1990), 44; Hobbs and
Goins, Marion County Tennessee 1860, 70, 101, 102, 103, 104, 107, 109, 114, 127, 132, 134, 137; Martin biographies
from James W. Cunningham, Gibsonville, N.C., 1990; Compiled Service Records, RG109, National Archives, Samuel
Martin; Memorial and Biographical Record, 500; Harris and Harris, Marion County Cemetery Records, 321; Charles
A. Sherrill, Tombstone Inscriptions of Grundy County Tennessee (Cleveland, Tenn., 1986), 109; Elizabeth W. Purnell,
John Gamp, or, Coves and Cliffs of the Cumberlands (Nashville, 1901), 234; Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 1138), E.W.
Woodall File; Athens Post, May 1, June 12, 1863; Nashville American, July 7, 1899; The Story of Marion County, 287,
288.

11. Nashville American, July 7, 1899. The payrolls show that the laborers indeed received fifty cents a day.
Cooks received from 333 to 66% cents a day. The superintendent usually made $2 per day, sometimes $2.50; cave boss
$1.50; boss boiler $1.50; wood boss and watchman $1 per day.

12. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 701), James Monk File.

13. War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 books in 70 vols.,
Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), Ser. 1, Vol. 30, Pt. 1: 398; Pt. 3: 250; Headquarters Diary, General George Henry

Thomas Papers, Records of the Adjutant General, RG94, National Archives, p. 87. It has not been determined if Battle
Creek Cave was also known as Hargis Cave. It may be that the report meant Hargis Cove. But in any event an error was
made. Harris was undoubtedly a corruption of Hargis. The cave is not in Hargis Cove but in the next cove to the north.