ADDETIONAL SAUTA CAVE NITER WORKS INFORMATION

Marion 0. Smith
Since the publication of "The Sauta Cave Confederate Niter Works” in the

December, 1983, issue of Civil War History [and reprinted the next year in the

Chronicles] additional miscellaneous information pertaining to that operation

has been located. This "new" data presents no departure from the original

research, but merely > Vesa some items which were earlier overlooked. Most

of it relates to hereneeors unknown individuals who sold supplies to or worked
at the works, as well as further biographical knowledge about persons formerly
identified.

Luther Gideon and Thomas Hodge, on November 28, 1862, and January 29 and 31,
1863, respectively, sold 101/2 and 203°/4 bushels of ashes (ian waking nitre at
Sauta Cave.'' About the same time, Z. H. Clardy supplied Sauta with potash, and
later he did the same for Marshall County's Big Spring Nitre Works [Guntersvilile
Caverns]. | |

"R Nickles Admr of the Estate of E. D. Nickles” on September 20, 1862, sold
"74 lbs ovenware™ to the Sauta Works for "Culinary purposes" and "44172 1bs Rope"
for the in-cave derrick's "hoisting power." On January 15, 1863, he also sold
to the works a kettle, weighing 320 pounds "@ 8° per lb." Nickles was probably
Richmond Nickles of Marshall County.

George W. Howell on October 15, 1862, supplied a pair of ‘Trace ee eos ceatl
and "3 Leather collars" for a government wagon used in "hauling at Sauta Cave.”

On March 6, 1863, Richard Rivers sold to the Sauta Works "2 Iron Dippers @

1.25 Ea" and "500 Boards."

At Guntersville July 16, 1863, John A. W. Stearnes sold 638 pounds bacon "Clear
sides" at $1, and 368 pounds bacon ree at 80¢ for "Subsistence for Laborers
at Sauta Cave there being no commissary accessible."

Also at Guntersville, F. A. Williams on July 25, 1863, solid "50 balls Candle

wick @ 1°°/100 pr. ball" for "making candles at Sauta Cave."

On August 10, 11, and 12, 1863, Jonathan Evans supplied "15 bush Corn @ Sou2
"169 lbs Fodder” at 2c , "43179 ibs Bacon" at $1.00, and "25 lbs Flour” at 20¢,
for subsistence of "Laborers and food for oat On August 13 he sold "16 bush
Coal" at 15¢ "For Use of blacksmith Shop" at Sauta. All of the above information,
beginning with the paragraph mentioning Luther Gideon, was obtained from Confed-
erate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, Record Group 109, National
Archives.

After the war John D. Borin was for a time a "Dealer in Metallic Burial piseah

at Scottsboro. Jackson County Herald, July 29, 1869.

Dr. James M. Buchanan in 1868 was president of the board of trustees of Larkins-—
ville High School. In 1879 he was charged with bigamy, having married a Miss
Alford of Fayetteville, Tennessee, and subsequently a Miss Dyer of Huntsville.

Scottsboro Jackson County Herald, August 27, 1868; Fayetteville Observer, January

1, Looo.

William Leroy Rounsavall ec 14, 1828-June 9, 1907), a native North Caro-
lina blacksmith who lived in the Woods Cove area on July Mountain's east side,
was "an employee of Gavitt's [William Gabbett's] Company." He enlisted December
1, 1862, at Deposit, Alabama, and served until “we were driven away from the caves."
A strong family tradition indicates that he worked at Sauta Cave. Alabama Confed-
erate Pension Application and genealogical data courtesy Ann B. Chambless.

Cyrus Towner Curtisse Deake (December 25, 1825-£11886) , briefly one of Captain
Cabbett's assistant superintendents, was a Saratoga County, New York, mative. He
erew up in that state's Livingston County where he farmed and taught school until
1851. From that time he lived in a number of places in the South. After two years
in Savannah, he lived successively in East Tennessee (ol850-90) ; Atianta (c1858-63) ,
Jonesboro, Tennessee (c1863-73), Mitchell County, North Carolina (1873-80), and

Asheville, North Carolina. In Mitchell County he edited the Roan Mountain

B29

im. we

Republican and worked a mica mine nine miles south of Bakersville, and at Ashe-

ville he established and edited the News (cl1880-84). Chattanooga Times, May 4,
1886, ps 21. ;

After Hugh Carlisle and George L. Henderson sold their improvements of Sauta
Cave to the Confederate government for $34,600, they invested their money in
cotton. Sometime in 1864 the Union forces captured their cotton in Marshall
County, sold it, and paid into the U. S. Treasury $43,180.32 [or $43,232]. After
the war Carlisle and Henderson sued the Court of Claims for the proceeds of 65
baies of their cotton which had been captured. The decision was against them,

but they appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court which reversed the earlier judgment.

However, it is not known if any money was actually collected. See Cases Decided

in the Court of Claims of the United States at the December Term for 13/0...»

Reported by Charles C. Nott and Samuel H. Huntington. Vol. VI. Washington:

Government Printing Office, 18/71, pages 398-406; Case$Decided in the Court of

Claims at the December Tern, 1872: and the Decisions of the Supreme Court in the

Appealed Cases From October, 1872, to May, 1873. Reported by Charles C. Nott and

Archibald Hopkins. Vol. VIII. Washington; Government Printing Office, 1874,

pages 153-65.