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.