Saltpeter miners of Corn Creek Cave, Alabama

SALTPETER MINERS OF COON CREEK CAVE, ALAGAMA

Maroon Oy Smith

The Civil War name for Coon Creek Cave was Wheeler Cave, probably because members
of that family lived nearby. During part of the war the cave was mined for saltpeter
OY Diter by a @Ontraclor named J, M. Borin. Practically nothing is known about Borin
except that between March 31, 1863, and August 13, 1864, he sold a total of 3,982
pounds of saltpeter to Confederate Nitre Bureau officers at Larkinsville, Alabama,
Chattanooga, Tennessee, Kingston and Rome, Georgia, and Blue Mountain and Montevallo,
Alabama. How much of this amount was made at Wheeler Cave is of course unknown, per-
haps alloef it, or more likely just: the 2, 362 pounds Sdduced oh 2003) (AG Rome, on
December ie 1563, Borin, received $24, for. six (6). days hire [ November 25-30] ef ofe
(1) yoke i ea hauling Nitre & Lead from Wheeler's Cave Jackson Co Ala To Rome Ga
furnishing self & Téam.‘!-

How many men Borin had working for him at Wheeler Cave is unknown. It is possible

that some of the following men whose names and dates have been found on the cave's

walls were his employees: 1862 Loyd, Wright{?] Shrader [?] 1863, H[?] Highfield [?]

1862, J L Evans Oct 62[?], and D.[?] 3.[?] corfal1 [corde11?] May the 13 1862.. How-
ever, Confederate pension applications have yielded the names of two men who definite-
Ly wotked there,’ Ji. Wy, laow and Johw Pitts.

Ironically, John Wesley Igou (1847-1917), a DeKalb County resident of Sand Moun-
tain his entire life, was the great erandfather of hej current National Speleological
Society denne a Robert LL. "R. Bs West Of Prattville, Alabama. In, a January 19,:'1909;
statement Igou said he had been a “Private on toe Nitre Beakrd Seivice \ 2 ¢ atl J
Borins nitre works District no 9, Goon Creek Gulf,” \.0n April’ 10, 1914, he reiterated
that he had belonged to "Capt. J. M. Bowran Co that mined and manufactured Salt Peter

- and he worked with said Co. at Wheelers cave in Jackson Co. Ala. and was furlow-
ed home just before the Federal Army came in and taken said mines, on account of sick-

ness and was never.able to do any more service in the war." On the latter date John

BST

!

Pitts was a witness and said that during the war [sow had worked under him’ during

part of. the time."

En 1660 John Pitts (December 11, 1636-£11915) was & married farmer with a
baby girl Living in.bis native Alabama county of Cherokee. On July 9, 1909; April
10, 1914, and January 5, 1915, he made statements outlining his 1862 through May,

1865, wartime experience at "Coon Creek Gulf" and elsewhere:

[HJ] e joined J. M. Bowran Co. who had detailed men from the army to
maufacture or mine Salt-Peter in Whellers Cave in Jackson Co. Ala. and
that he remain there till his Superentendent or Capt. J. M. Bowran was
captured . . . and then’ he was placed’. .'..in charge of the works and
remain there... till the Federal army came in and run t[h]Jem out and
then he reported to Capt William Gabbett at or near Ducks Spring¢ and
was ordered to Blunt Co. to Crumps Cave and there he set up the works
Sachin. «sand. )o On Or apout the 2h day of Dec. JeBA. he taken
fever and was sick for some time, and was then furlowed home and was at
home when the surrender came. ,

Alt the time of Bie enlistment . < . ‘in Capt..J. M. Bowron's Com-
pany. . . he was a tesident of Dekalb County, Alabama, and hasbeen
continuously since the surrender in 1665. . . . CAlt the close of the
war-he surrendered with Norwoods Infantry Company and was regularly
paroled as a soldier of the Confederate States.

In order to enhance the possibility of obtaining a pension Pitts was trying to make
it appear that 'Bowran" Peoraay, and thus he, were in the regular Confederate army.
Le Us face when Borin could have been captured. Possibly, he was temporarily
detained during one of the Paras all raids in late 1863 or early 1864. Otherwise, his
capture had to have occurred after August 13, 1864. Pitts's revelation about being
sent to Crumps Cave in Blount County, Alabama, is important because when linked to a
Confederate ede oul it substantiates the theory that that cave was Little Warrior
Nitre Works. The July, 1864, Little Warrior payroll indeed listed John Pitts as a
laborer at sixty cents a day.4
NOTES
Leo Jae Me BOUIN Fite Cont egerate eae Relating to Citizens or Business Firms,

Record Group 109 (Microcopy 346, Roll 81), National Archives. See Marion 0. Smith,
Saltpeter Mining and the Civil War in Jackson County, — (Maryville, Tenn. :

aes S .Grap hic Arts, 1990), pages 30-31( 4 sycere(-stwe, Volene 24, Vo. 2 Cla are 27 Ens Jou ns
ete ee Creek Cave notes, February 6, 1983, September 9, hha: in possession of
Marion O. Smith; J. W. Igou and John Pitts files, Alabama Confederate Pension Appli-

cations, Montgomery.

BAe

>; Couversattions with 7h, B. Weet, ‘May 5. &. MUGS we We Leou File. “Alabama
Confederate Pension Applications.

4. 1860 Census, Ala: ,’ Cherokee ; 2nd Dist... 7S sone Pitts file. Alabama Confed=
erate Pension Applications; Little Warrior Nitre Works Pavrorl. July, (BGA, Record
Group 109, National Archives. Although both ieou and Pitts stated that the Federal
army ‘taken'' the "mines" or "run t {hlem out," it seems more Likely, in absence of
any Union reports of a raid, that Coon Creek Cave was Seimpiy abandoned. If so,. this
probably occurred in November, 1863, several months after the United States army had
occupied the part of Jackson County north of the Tennessee River.