A288

WILLIAM GABBETT:

SUPERINTENDENT OF CONFEDERATE NITRE DISTRICT NO. NINE
Marion O. Smith

William Gabbett, Jr., born September 23, 1830, was the oldest of seven children of William
Gabbett and Elizabeth Furnell of Mount Minnett, County Limerick, Ireland. His middle name was
Furnell but he apparently never used it. Nothing is known about his childhood, but by 1853 he had
received training as a civil engineer. For a time he reputedly served in the Crimea, presumable
plying his profession. !

It is unknown how they met, but in 1855, apparently in Ireland, Gabbett married Sarah
Elizabeth Richardsone (July 16, 1833-July 16, 1911), daughter of Dr. Cosmo P. Richardsone and
Margaret Bailey of Savannah, Georgia. Soon thereafter he moved with his bride to Savannah.
where for “several years” they lived before about 1858 moving to Atlanta. In October that year
Gabbett and a Mr. McDonald were partners as architects, real estate brokers and agents, with an
office in a brick building near the Georgia Railroad Bank. By 1859 the Gabbetts were residing in
a house on the east side of Peachtree Street north of the corporate line.’

Gabbett and his partner designed private and public buildings. In February 1860 their place
of business was “immediately under” the Daily Intelligencer office at the Post Office Platform. At
that time he was drawing plans for new Baptist and Episcopal churches in Griffin. The Baptist
structure was “to be of a composite style of architecture, ninety-seven by fifty-four feet, with a
spire one hundred and thirty-five feet in height.”°

The next month Atlanta citizens of Irish birth organized a Hiberian society, to create a
library, visit the sick, aid the widowed and orphaned, and to bury the dead. Gabbett was elected
vice president.” |

On June 5, 1860, Gabbett became partners with a Mr. Crisp as “architects, engineers, land
and building surveyors, and superintendents of works.” They were prepared “to make extensive or
limited Surveys of Cities, Towns and Real Estate, and to furnish Topographical Maps to any scale.”
They were also willing to “take Levels and prepare Sections for grading, drainage, sanitary and
other purposes.” At the same time Gabbett was the sole agent for the Van Wert slate quarry in Polk
County, Georgia.

A local military company, the Fulton Dragoons, was organized on May 23, 1860, and by
the following December Gabbett was its quartermaster. Before this company began active service
for the newly formed Confederacy Gabbett went to Richmond, Virginia, in behalf of Hiram TI.
Jones, James H. Grant, himself, and eight others, all engineers or mechanics. For that group, on
June 11, 1861, he penned a letter to Secretary of War LeRoy P. Walker, asking commissions to
officer a proposed hundred man “corps of construction” to build various military works, trestles,
and pontoon bridges. Nothing came of the proposition, and eleven days later it was announced in
the Atlanta papers that the Fulton Dragoons were to form part of a new Georgia legion.°

Consequently, Gabbett prepared himself to go to the “front,” and on July 30 began
advertising his six room brick residence, near Peters and Harden’s Nursery, “with outdoor kitchen,
stable and carriage house” for rent. On August 14, while still at Atlanta, he was mustered in as a
private in Cavalry Company B of Colonel Thomas R.R. Cobb’s Georgia Legion, and a few days
later moved with his unit to Virginia. The Irishman did not remain on duty long. On December 17,

1861, while at Camp Marion near Yorktown, he was discharged “by reason of Tuberculosis of his
right lung.” At that time he was described as five feet, nine and a half inches tall, with fair
complexion, grey eyes, and sandy hair.’ ,

Gabbett apparently was back at home about four months, and on April 3, 1862, again began
advertising his house and two acre lot for rent. Soon, on April 28, he was appointed an assistant
superintendent in the newly established Confederate Nitre Bureau, which had as its primary
function to oversee the mining and production of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), the main ingredient
of gunpowder. Gabbett’s initial territory was District No. Eight, which encompassed northern
Georgia and middle lennessee. How he acquired this position is unknown, but he was
compensated at the rate of $3.50 per day.®

Gabbett held this position only until the end of June, and spent much of his time in Floyd
County, Georgia. He was especially involved with setting up Cave Spring Cave as a government
saltpeter mine. On July 1 he was promoted to superintendent of north Alabama’s Nitre District No.
Nine, with the rank of captain, a position he held the remainder of the war. His pay was
immediately boosted to $4 a day, then on October 1 to $150 a month, and by March |, 1863, to
$180 a month. Because Huntsville and Alabama north of the Tennessee River was occupied by the
Federal army from mid-April through August, Gabbett was delayed in the organization of his
district. During that time he apparently used Cave Spring, Georgia, as his headquarters, and
continued to maintain responsibility for the cave works there. During his first two months as
superintendent he was assisted by Cyrus C.T. Deake and John Bate, and on August 16 received
271 pounds of saltpeter from Rome businessman, James M. Elliott.’

In August 1862 he began investigating caves in areas of northern Alabama not occupied,
and sent Bate on a thirteen day exploration probe there. Then on the 19" Gabbett personally left
Cave Spring ona “tour... to Blountsville Blount Co Ala to explore nitrous caves &c &c7" On the
same excursion, between the 25" and 28", he made a side trip from Blountsville via Gadsden to
tour Big Spring Cave (shown to the public a hundred years later as Guntersville Caverns) in
Southern Marshall County.'°

Before the end of the month General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate army moved from
Chattanooga toward Kentucky, forcing the Union forces to evacuate northern Alabama and much
of middle Tennessee. This allowed Captain Gabbett to at last more fully develop his district.
During September he moved his headquarters to Huntsville and a few months later to Larkinsville.
Within four months five caves were being mined directly by the Nitre Bureau: Big Spring, Fort
Payne (Manitou), Sauta, Trinity, and Eureka, and at least six saltpeter contractors were in business:
W. R. Brannon, Cowley and McLemore, W. H. Herrin and Company, Henry Morris, Grantland
and McIntosh, and Roberts and Rountree."!

Gabbett constantly moved about his district. September 6-14 he made his first trip to
Huntsville then returned to Cave Spring, Georgia. From the 16" through the 26" he went via
Gadsden and Guntersville, “Exploring Fort Paine Nitre Works” along the way. From Huntsville
October 3 he traveled to Elk River Cave in Lauderdale County; October 6 to Eureka Cave in
Newsome Sinks, Morgan County; October 7-8 to Sauta Cave in Jackson County, and October 10-
14 to D. W. Parker’s, Hambrick’s, Big Spring, Fort Payne, and Cave Spring Caves. October 24-
27 he journeyed via Cedar Bluff, Alabama, with Professor Nathaniel A. Pratt, chemist at the
Augusta, Georgia, Second Division Nitre office, to Fort Payne Cave. During November, 4-6 and

7-9, he made round trip excursions from Huntsville to Sauta and Trinity Caves, the latter in Morgan
County near Decatur. '”

Gabbett was also obliged to periodically go to the Augusta office to obtain cash remittances
from the Bureau. Dates when this happened include August 8, September 2, October 18, November
27, 1862, and February 13 and March 30, 1863, when $5,000, $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $20,000,
and $20,000 were issued to him. Undoubtedly, there were other similar trips for which no record
survives.!°

District No. Nine was subdivided with an assistant superintendent in charge of each section.
At headquarters Gabbett had a clerk, bookkeeper, and other assistant superintendents. Also, he
appointed some individuals as Bureau agents. His office had to keep track of the disbursements of
the monies received from Augusta and Richmond. Payments were made for everything needed to
keep the district functioning: salaries and wages of all officers, slave owners, and employees; food
and forage when they were not available from commissaries and quartermasters; such equipment
as buckets, nails, kettles, crowbars, grindstones, axes, shovels, picks, and hammers; potash;
lumber; medical services; telegrams; advertising in newspapers and the printing of forms; wood
for fuel; candles, tallow, and beeswax; hire of mules or horses with wagons for hauling; paper, and
numerous other items. Private saltpeter contractors were paid for their product, and rent was paid
to owners of caves worked on government account.!4

Vouchers providing information about Gabbett’s movements through his district are
missing from mid-November, 1862, through April, 1863. However, an “Abstract of Materials
Expended” for the fourth quarter, 1862, has survived, which enumerates the items used to sustain
the Ninth District during that time: 22,000 pounds and 278 bales of fodder and 889 pounds of hay
for the public animals, 1,580 pounds flour, 1,762 bushels corn, 86% bushels meal, 5,650 pounds
bacon, 8,360 pounds beef, and 745 pounds salt for subsistence of the men, 158 pounds nails, 8,732
pounds potash, 4,200 feet of lumber, 401 cords of wood, 25 loads of pine, 2,180 bushels ashes,
124 pounds tallow candles, 168 pounds tallow, 10 pounds star candles, 248 yards osnaburgs, and
30 pounds blasting powder plus varying amounts of paper, envelopes, candle wick, pump leather,
and exemption forms.’

In November 1862, after the Bureau took over the mining of Sauta Cave, Captain Gabbett
moved his headquarters to Larkinsville on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad to be closer to it,
renting an office from Ann Dillard. Sauta for a brief period was the most heavily worked saltpeter
cave in the entire Confederacy. Its white and black employees in early 1863 numbered in excess
of 180 per month, including the laborers at the adjacent Gunters Mountain Potash Works. On
December 16 Gabbett began advertising in newspapers that he wished to hire “I'wenty Irish
laborers for underground work,” promising “Good wages and board.” He further noted that “Men
skilled in mining” could be “detailed from the army on application.” The response to this appeal
was probably very limited.’®

On January 25, 1863, Gabbett ordered John L. Mcelntosh to go from Larkinsville “to the
vicinity of Huntsville and Madison Station” and buy for the Bureau “all the available corn and
Fodder in that section.” The prices to be paid were a dollar per bushel for corn and $1.50 per
hundred pounds of fodder. Ten days later Gabbett gave notice that he had appointed William R.
Rison to be a Bureau agent in Huntsville for the purchese of “Lead, Copper, Steele, Nitre, Acid,
&c.” Saltpeter contractors who used Huntsville as their “point of delivery” were also to see Rison.

ASI

The last day of February, Gabbett instructed T. J. Robinson, superintendent of Gunters Mountain
Potash Works, to give R. B. Allen, a prospective contractor, “all the information in your power
regarding the manufacture of Potash.” On March 9 and 21, 1863, Gabbett sent David A. Ramsey
as a special messenger to respectively escort “two [railroad] car loads of Ordnance Stores” and a
“car load of Nitre” and deliver them to Captain George W. Arnold, head of the Augusta, Georgia,
Nitre Bureau Office. On the earlier occasion Ramsey was to return to Larkinsville with a “shipment
of Potash.”?’

The workers at the government caves as well as the private saltpeter and potash contractors
and their laborers were exempt from the army. Consequently, one duty of the Nitre District
superintendents was to issue certificates of exemption. The only known surviving example of such
by Gabbett was given on march 12, 1863, to J. C. Thornton, an employee of the contractors
Matthews and Englis at “Matthews Cave Jackson Co Ala.” But, 1f Thornton was “found one mile
from said Works without a written Furlough from the Superintendent of said work, he will be liable
to be arrested as a conscript and taken to the nearest camp of instruction by the [county] Enrolling
Officer.” !®

In late April-early May 1863, a sizeable Federal force under Colonel Abel D. Streight
raided through north Alabama via Blountsville and Gadsden toward Rome, Georgia. During this
scare, April 30-May 4, Gabbett traveled via Decatur to move out of harm’s way the tools and
provisions at Trinity Cave. He also attempted to consult with Brigadier General Nathan Bedford
Forrest. May 6-9 he was on the road again “to look after Big Spring Nitre Works hearing the enemy
were at Gadsden.” He wanted “to find out purpose of [the] Enemy” and also “to see to Govt
property” at Fort Payne Cave. However, the danger was already over before he began this trip.
General Forrest had forced Streight to surrender at Lawrence, Alabama, on May 3.!”

Also on May 9, 1863, Gabbett issued a call to Alabama citizens for lead, noting that most
homes had it in the form of piping or window or gate weights. He offered to pay for lead, or to
exchange powder and shot for it at the rate of a pound of either powder or shot for respectively
eight and four pounds of lead. He proposed to replace window and gate weights with “Iron ones
of the best description.” He appointed the following men to receive lead: Benton Sanders, Athens;
Henry W. Grantland, Decatur; John J. Black at the store of Douglas, Donegan & Co., Huntsville;
John D. Borin, Stevenson; and George W. Rice, Bridgeport.”°

During early June1863, Captain George W. Amold of the Augusta office, who oversaw
seven of the fourteen Nitre districts, came to Larkinsville on “an official visit” to the Ninth District.
He noted “A card” published in the Huntsville Confederate signed by Thomas B. Jordan making
complaints against Captain Gabbett. Declaring Gabbett as “one of the most efficient and faithful
officers of the corps,” Arnold on June 5 stated that the charge brought by Jordan was “Frivolous
and malicious.” He further mentioned that Gabbett had sent to Augusta “vouchers for articles
purchased by him for Government use at prices much under the market value,” which meant that
his “’speculations’ had been to the advantage of the Government several thousand dollars.” Arnold
deemed that Gabbett had been “fully vindicated in military circles and before the public.””!

Effective July 1, 1863, Captain Frederick H. Smith was relieved from command of the
Eighth Nitre District and assigned to the iron service. At Chattanooga the same day Gabbett
assumed charge of Smith’s district, and received its numerous assets, including food and forage,
240 barrels, 139 pounds of tallow, rope, lumber, thirteen shanties, three bailing sheds, two store

houses, three double stables, one corn crib, four furnaces, twenty-seven large square hoppers,
eighty-two smaller hoppers, twenty-five ash hoppers, twenty-seven log pipes, 277 sacks, thirty-
two various sized kettles, seven wagons, eleven mules, two horses, office furniture and supplies,
and tools of all sorts. Some of these items had been kept at smith’s headquarters and most of the
buildings, furnaces, hoppers, kettles, and wagons were distributed among the government saltpeter
operations at Battle Creek (Monteagle Saltpeter) and Nickajack Caves in Marion County,
Tennessee, Pack (Hooker) Cave in Dade County, Georgia, and Lookout Cave, Hamilton County,
Tennessee, all sites now under threat.”

When Gabbett took over District Eight its operations were in the process of being disrupted
by the Union advances against Bragg’s army at Shelbyville, Tullahoma, and Manchester,
Tennessee. By the beginning of September 1863 additional Federal moves toward Chattanooga,
as well as the reoccupation of Huntsville and north Alabama along the railroads, put the personnel
of both Nitre Districts Eight and Nine in pell-mell retreat.

Soon, many of the men of the Ninth District were pulled back to Guntersville, where an
office was maintained. Also, a storehouse was rented at Gadsden. It seems that for a while Gabbett
maintained his office at Chattanooga. There, on August 7, he turned over to Captain Fred H. Smith
twelve short handled shovels. Two weeks later he visited the Chatata lead mine in Bradley County.
Tennessee. About August 24 he spent two days on a trip to Pack Cave, Georgia, with the intention
of going to Shellmound and presumably Nickajack Cave. But the closeness of the enemy prevented
that. Also on the 24" he ordered Samuel B. Arnold, a former Augusta Nitre office employee and
now an assistant superintendent of the Eighth District, to go with C. A. Sprague to the Ninth
District “and assist in the removal therefrom all Nitre on hand and such other Government stores
as may be unsafe at Gadsden.” Arnold was to “take charge of the shipment in person” to Atlanta.
He was also to take the returns of the Ninth District to his brother, Captain Arnold at Augusta, and
to continue at Gadsden in the same “capacity until everything be saved or the enemy driven back
when you will report for orders at Kingston Ga.” S.B. Arnold was further instructed to ship the
potash and tools “if they be in danger and have them stored at or near Kingston Ga.” About August
25-26 Gabbett made a two day trip to Graysville, Georgia, “moving Office materials from
Chattanooga” as well as the Chattanooga Potash Works force. On the 27" he made “arrangements
for wagon teams” at Ringgold, Georgia, and the remainder of the month went to Augusta “for
orders and funds,” returning to Dalton, Georgia.”

At Dalton, apparently the temporary office of District Eight, on September 1, 1863, Gabbett
requisitioned from the local quartermaster ten days forage for one horse and ten mules. September
9-17 he trekked from Dalton via Rome and Gadsden to Blue Mountain, Alabama, and back to
Rome “with a train of wagons to remove stores & force from 9" District.” The next day he was at
Kingston, and around the 20-23 he was on a four day trip to Atlanta “for receiving & invoicing
Nitre” from the Ninth District and “attending to the storing of the Chatata Lead Mine materials,”
probably accompanied by Assistant Superintendent I. J. Byrne of the Eighth District. Earlier,
September 8-10, Byrne moved the “horses & mules from Dalton to Kingston.” During the night
of September 8 six sacks of saltpeter were stolen from the Western and Atlantic Railroad cars, for
the recovery of which Gabbett offered a $100 reward.”*

Starting in September many of the laborers of Districts Eight and Nine were placed at a
camp near Kingston, Georgia. The known numbers are ten whites and forty-five slaves in

September, sixty-two whites and thirty slaves in October, and thirty slaves in November. Kingston
was Gabbett’s headquarters through October 1863, then on November 1 he was ordered by Captain
Arnold to use Rome as headquarters of both districts. Gabbett at this time was almost constantly
on the go. At least four times and maybe five (records conflict), October 2-6, 9-13, November 19-
23, and December 14-20, he made trips to Augusta. About October 25 he and an assistant “for a
witness” headed from Kingston toward the Ducktown copper mines, getting at least to Cleveland,
Tennessee. October 27-November 8 he was gone to Alabama on a tour of inspection of the
government operations at Little River (Daniel) in Cherokee County, Fort Payne, and Big Spring
Caves, in addition to the Town Creek Potash Works and the Epsom Salts Works. November 10-
14 he traveled from Kingston to Blue Mountain, Calhoun County, Alabama, “‘to establish Nitre
works at that place.” This was a follow-up to his November 7 order to T. J. Byrne to “proceed”
from Kingston “by wagon road with the laborers selected for your operations to “Bell Nitre Works,’
near Blue Mountain Ala” with “the necessary tools &c for the immediate opening of the works.”
November 23-30 he went via Cave Spring, Georgia, again to Alabama, Jacksonville, Blue
Mountain, Gadsden, and Cedar Bluff, to visit and inspect the government saltpeter operations in
his charge. Immediately afterwards, December 1-7, he went “to Atlanta Ga to procure Salt and
Sugar for subsistence of Laborers of Dist No 9 and assorting property of the district stored at that
place.” Thomas L. Bryan, November 5-26, had been watchman of that property. Gabbett’s further
movements for 1863 are unknown, but on December 22 he was at Big Spring Nitre Works where
he sold 305 pounds of potash to saltpeter contractors Green and Massey. On October 29 Gabbett
ordered an assistant, Lieutenant James M. Hull (1838-1864) of Athens, Georgia, to go to
Cleveland, Tennessee, and see the officer who had “impressed the hogs that belong to the
Ducktown Copper Mining Company” or to contact Isaac M. St. John, the chief of the Nitre Bureau,
and the quartermaster general, and gather “all the Evidence that may be necessary in the case to
lay the whole facts before the Chief of both Departments.” Again, at Rome, on December 2, Hull
was directed to catch the next day’s train to Kingston and settle all the “unfinished business of the
Dists. There — shipping all the stores” to Rome “and furloughing the two men on guard at that
point.” Then Hull was to continue to Cartersville and settle with James L. Rogers at the iron works.
Six days later, still at Rome, Gabbett sent Hull to the Gadsden area to take care of the Bureau
operations there, including the cave at Blue Mountain “and a general Supervision of the Dept at
Gadsden.” In addition, Hull was to open “new works in that region, Paying off hands, & business
generally.”

A minimum of twelve Nitre Bureau employees, including Captain Gabbett, remained in
Rome during January 1864, along with six public horses. Gabbett personally received
commutation of quarters there for three rooms January 1-February 15. On January 15 John J. Black
was sent to the Atlanta Banking and Insurance Company to get various “Vouchers, Returns &C
left with them some time since for safe keeping.” The following 21-30, Gabbett, probably
accompanied by Black, embarked on another “trip of inspection to the different works. . . [in
Alabama] to pay off Laborers.” Part of the time he had Lieutenant William G. Stephens of the
Guard Company (originally formed in December 1862 to protect Sauta Cave) with him to muster
and pay the enlisted men, and “John Bate to inspect two Nitrous Caves.” On the 28" Gabbett was
at Big Spring Works. In February, on the 12", Black was ordered to Athens, Georgia, to settle the
accounts of Lieutenant J. M. Hull, who had died of pneumonia four days earlier.”

About February 15, 1864, Gabbett’s headquarters for Districts Eight and Nine were shifted
from Rome, Georgia, to Blue Mountain, Alabama. Gabbett’s movements for February have been
lost. But during the March 5-16 period he went to the Augusta office, spent two days in Rome, and
with at least one other person, traveled via Gadsden, Summit, Guntersville, and Somerville. During
the latter excursion he paid Big Spring Cave laborers and “attempt[ed] to visit Trinity Nitre Works
on Memphis and Charleston R.R. and return via Guntersville Ala. to settle government claims at
that place.” At Blue Mountain on March 9 he instructed his assistant for supplies, James M.
Walker, to take the next day’s “train for Selma for the purpose of procuring supplies for the works
of the district,” with authority to travel south of Selma if necessary. March 27-April 5 Gabbett
again journeyed to Augusta, “for the purpose of turning over to the Depositary all the funds of ‘old
issue’ on hand.” At Augusta on March 31, he made a draft on the Confederate Depositary, Thomas
S. Metcalf, for $55,000 to be charged to his account.’

During the first quarter of 1864, between February 10 and march 30, surviving vouchers
reveal that Gabbett received a total of $924 for supplies he sold to contractors in his district. Potash
makers Allen and Ross gained eighty bushels of corn while J. H. and N. B. Scott obtained sixty
bushels of corn and 300 pounds of fodder. Saltpeter manufacturers Morris and Noble, J. L. and M.
V. Brisco, Draper and Grantland, J..Russell and Brother, and F. M. Nixon respectively were
provided twenty-five, fifty, eight, and twenty-five bushels of corn, and 348 pounds of potash.”*®

On April 1, 1864, Gabbett issued to one of his assistants, J. F. Martin, very specific
instructions to guide the various district “Superintendents in rendering their monthly and quarterly
returns.” Examples included listing separately the amounts of saltpeter made on government
account and by contractors; the amount of potash received during the month and from whom; the
number of white, slave, and free black workers; the amount of rations consumed; the number of
articles fabricated; and the amount of subsistence on hand. All returns from the subdistrict
superintendents and superintendents of government works, such as at Big Spring Cave, were to be
delivered to Gabbett’s office “on or before” the last day of the month.”

April 14-20 Gabbett ventured “to Big Spring and Nixon C.S. Nitre works . . . to inspect
works and settle up all outstanding claims with ‘old issue.’” April 22 to about the 26 he again
examined the operation at Big Spring and went on to explore Long Hollow Cave near the south
bank of the Tennessee River. April 28-May 7 he moved via J acksonville, Rome, and Atlanta on a
“trip to Augusta Ga under orders from Capt Geo Arnold to procure funds and bring from Atlanta
Ga, ordnance and medical stores.” Immediately afterwards, May 7-19, he went via Gadsden,
Bedford, Warrenton, and Apple Grove on another inspection tour of the government saltpeter
works at Big Spring, Nixon’s, and Long Hollow Caves “to pay off laborers” and “Also to visit
Contractors in the counties of Blount and Marshall.” On May 2 James M. Walker was a second
time ordered by Gabbett to Selma, and if necessary to Marion, Uniontown, and Demopolis to
procure subsistence and tools such as shovels, picks, axes, and buckets. Walker was actually gone
May 10-26 and did visit Selma, Uniontown, and Hamburg, with what success is not known. About
May 12 Gabbett instructed his clerk, John J. Black, “to take charge of the wagon train loaded with
nitre, and have it transported to Gilberts Ferry on the Coosa River — there you will take the boat
for Rome Ga, and turn the nitre and Epsom Salts over to Capt [James M.] Elliott, a.q.m. taking his
receipt for same,” then return by stage to Blue Mountain. It is not known if this saltpeter got
through since Federal forces were in Rome by the 17, On May 24, when Sherman’s Union armies

were even deeper into Georgia, including Bartow and Paulding Counties, Gabbett sent Black on
another mission. He was to go to Selma with eleven blacks and there “assume control of all the
force and property shipped from” Blue Mountain “there for safety.” Two white employees, A.J.
Sharp and C. Anderson, were to report to him and give any assistance required. May 28-June |,
Gabbett, hearing of the approach of a force of Federals along the Tennessee River, went on a rescue
“trip to Big Spring and Long Hollow CS Nitre Works, to receive force, subsistence, tools &c on
advance of the enemy.”°”

In April Gabbett tried to get one or more mountain howitzers from the Atlanta Arsenal, but
was informed none were available. On the 268 he asked by letter Colonel Moses H. Wright,
commander of the facility, if the guns could “be procured at any other arsenal.” Gabbett wrote that
there were “no forces now between my works and the enemy,” and if he had the guns, “they would
be worth a battalion for defence.” He had apparently also asked for some small arms, noting that
“a proportion of rifles are very necessary, as the Tennessee River at the points I shall picket is 600
yards across, and the firing on boats will be the most important defence.” The rifles Gabbett did
have were fifty-four caliber. On May 12, probably near Long Hollow, Gabbett again addressed
Wright with facts showing “the necessity of the guns I have asked for.” He observed that the
Federals had withdrawn their pickets along the river south of Bridgeport and had replaced them
with a steamboat “running up and down the river.” The day before Guntersville was shelled, and
today while “I write they are shelling in the direction of my government works at “Long Hollow.’”
Gabbett argued that “one shot from a field gun would put a stop to this state of things.” Therefore,
he renewed his plea for one or two pieces of light artillery, especially four pounder rifled guns,
which would be light enough to haul over the mountains. He planned to send a special messenger
“to take charge of what you may be pleased to send me.” But, no such armaments materialized.*!

During the second quarter, 1864, April 25-June 25, Gabbett was paid $2,186.64 for
supplies sold to contractors. J. H. and N. B. Scott and Allen and Rose, potash producers,
respectively bought 328 pounds of bacon at $2.15 a pound and 153 pounds of bacon and fifty-two
and a half bushels of corn. Saltpeter providers Brisco and Brother, Morris and Noble, Draper and
Grantland, Russell and Brother, and James Ratliff acquired sixty pounds bacon; six bushels wheat,
thirty-five and a half bushels corn, and 282 pounds potash; seven bushels wheat; thirty-nine pounds
bacon and 362 pounds potash; and 300 pounds potash.”*

About June 6, 1864, at a camp near Gilberts Ferry, Gabbett ordered Bureau worker John
R. Hopkins to leave the next morning with twenty men and go to Blue Mountain Cave to work
there. Hopkins was also to have with him a two mule wagon and an ox cart with three blacks and
their baggage. At Oxford, Alabama, June 18 Gabbett wrote Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow
that the operations under his charge “having been to a great extent broken up by the enemy,” he,
in accordance with instructions from Colonel St. John, head of the Nitre Bureau in Richmond,
reported himself “and unemployed men for orders as a force for ‘local defence.” This did not
happen and Gabbett continued his Nitre Bureau activities. June 21 he instructed John J. Black to
travel by train to Montevallo and ship from there to James M. Walker at Selma “two barrels and
one box Nitre, weighing gross nine hundred and six pounds.” Five days later Captain Arnold wrote
Gabbett that “For the better procuring of clothing &c for the forces of your command, it will be
advisable for you” to come to Augusta “with your monthly returns, where you can remain until
the arrival of your quarterly returns.” Gabbett was gone July 1-30, and because of the invasion of

Georgia he was obliged to go to Augusta via Randolph, Selma, Montgomery, West Point, and
Atlanta. He was at Augusta from the 6" until the 19", and on his return spent the 21 st_29"4 at Macon
and 23"-24" at Columbus, where he was authorized to make purchases of cloth for his district.
From Columbus he went via Tuskegee, Union Springs, Cheraw, and Montgomery. Some days
later, around August 10-12, Gabbett did a short trip to Selma “to collect Hire of negroes.””°

In July 1864, because of reported “fast declining health” of his father due to heart disease,
Gabbett wrote Colonel St. John asking for leave to enable him to temporarily return to Ireland:

Apart from the filial duty that would urge my presence with my mother at such a
time, important business considerations demand my attention, from the fact that 1 am my
father’s ... heir... and on his demise inherit the family estate. My absence for ninty days
after his death would be very detrimental, indeed almost ruinous, to the interests of my
family and heirs. My uncle who for eight years has acted as my agent and business friend,
has coincident with the illness of my father been affected with a stroke of Paralysis which
leaves my business matters entirely uncared for.

But Gabbett’s father somewhat recuperated and the trip did not happen.**

By August 15, 1864, Gabbett once more moved his headquarters, this time to Montevallo,
Alabama. There, on that date, he wrote T.J. Robinson, superintendent of the saltpeter facility at
Cedar Mountain (Horse Cave) in Blount County, to impress him with “the necessity of
commencing a yield as soon as possible” and to start “producing with one or two hoppers and as
you make a little increase the capacity of the work.” Gabbett also noted that because John D.
Borin’s operation (Little Warrior Works or Crumps and Second Caves) was the “nearest work” to
Montevallo, it was advisable that the supply depot in charge of Lewis A. Mayo and the wagon
shop should be established there. In another letter to Robinson on September 2, Gabbett promised
that his force would be increased by the next wagon train. . . ; all the forces from Nixons works
[Frenchs Saltpeter Cave] will be transferred to you as soon as possible,” and he urged Robinson
“to use every effort to make a large return of nitre for September.” Gabbett disclosed that the
inspections of works may henceforth “be done by an officer assigned” to that task. “My duties are
now so complicated that I cannot leave my Head Quarters long enough to ride long distances
through the country.” But, if possible, he hoped to visit Cedar Mountain during that month.
September 8 Gabbett sent a notice to the newspapers that “All men absent, on leave or otherwise,
from District No. 8 and 9 .. . are hereby ordered to report forthwith” with those failing to comply
to be treated as deserters.°°

In October Gabbett ordered his principal assistant, Bolling A. Stovall, to duty at the Second
Division office at Augusta, Georgia, where he arrived on the 12". Apparently earlier, sometime
after the February death of his kinsman, James M. Hull, Lieutenant William Henry Hull (1835-
1881) became Gabbett’s acting Adjutant. On October 26 the captain again admonished IT. J.
Robinson that it was “most important that the yield of your works be pushed to the utmost . . . the
necessities of the country demand it.””°

Generally, saltpeter production under Gabbett’s charge during the final seven or eight
months of the war was confined primarily to two counties. The government works at Nixons,
which closed in September, Little Warrior, Cedar Mountain, and Blountsville (Posey) Caves, plus
the contractor later government cave, probably Blowing Saltpeter, run by Culpepper, Vaughn, and

Gamble, were all in Blount County. Various contractors in Morgan County were overseen by sub-
district superintendent Henry W. Grantland at Apple Grove. In late 1864, during General John Bel!
Hood’s ill-fated invasion of Tennessee, there was brief Yonsideration of re-opening Sauta Cave in
Jackson County, but it did not happen.*’

On March 20, 1865, National A. Pratt, Captain George W. Amold’s successor at Augusta,
noted that Gabbett was doing himself “an injustice by returning” his “Aggregate nitre’ to date at
96849 lbs. This may be true for the works now being carried on—but you would do well to keep
on your return the names of Caves formerly worked with am! nitre from Each... your present
sheet shows scarcely a quarter of what your Dist has really turned Out e

Until the end Gabbett depended on the Augusta office for some of his supplies. About
October 1864, he apparently requested a hundred pair of cotton cards and a hundred bunches of
thread. The shipment of these and other items were delayed by Sherman’s march through Georgia
and by the shifting of much of the Augusta office’s materials to Columbia, South Carolina for safe
keeping. Captain Gabbett also wanted steel and hoop iron, but on December 7 was informed by
Stovall that “at present there is no transportation with the west & in fact since my assignment” to
Augusta. Only very small packages of freight were then making it across Georgia to Columbus.
Transportation apparently improved somewhat but remained fragile. On January 30, 1865, the
Augusta office shipped to Gabbett a hundred bundles of yarn, eighty blankets, one hundred woolen
pants and caps, 300 cotton and fifty flannel shirts, and 175 pair of shoes. The succeeding March
4, J. H. Montgomery, the Augusta office’s chief clerk, promised to send Gabbett “a shipment of
jackets in a few days, as soon as the roads are passable between this place & the junction at Gordon
[Georgia] — the late heavy rains have rendered transportation almost impossible.” In addition, on
December 20, 1864, the post quartermaster at Augusta issued Gabbett twenty six and a half
bushels, fifteen bushels, 900 pounds, and one hundred bushels respectively of wheat, oats, fodder,
and corn, without reference as to how it was to be sent to Alabama.°”

William Gabbett owned two slaves, York and Sandy. March-November, 1864, they were
hired as carpenters, at $5 a day, to the Augusta, Georgia, artificial nitre beds, and during that time
earned for Gabbett $2,210, collected in his behalf by Professor N. A. Pratt. On February 3, 1865,
they were to be escorted to Gabbett in Alabama, causing them to run away. They returned to
Augusta and by March 20 York was back at work at the nitre beds.*°

Only a little is known about the movements of Gabbett’s office personnel during the last
months of the war. Apparently, in early November 1864, John J. Black was sent on a now unknown
mission to Augusta. But as of the 12" of that month he had not arrived. In late January 1865,
Lieutenant W. H. Hull was sent to Augusta to obtain funds. There was a delay and while waiting
he visited his home in Athens, Georgia. Finally, on February 3, he was to return to Montevallo
with Gabbett’s two slaves and official papers for both Gabbett and Major W.H.C. Price of Nitre
District No. Ten at Montgomery. Late in March 1865, Frederick Wright, a former employee in
Gabbett’s district, who had been captured on Sand Mountain in December 1863, was exchanged
and made his way to Augusta. There, he was advanced $200 and ordered to join Gabbett at
Montevallo, although it is unlikely that he made it due to the powerful cavalry raid under General
James H. Wilson at that time.*!

The Wilson juggernaut no doubt forced Gabbett to flee from Montevallo. After a while he
apparently moved back to Blue Mountain. There, in spite of the surrender by General Richard

Taylor of the majority of the Confederate forces in Alabama at Citronelle on May 4, 1865, he and
a few others remained on duty at least six more days.”

William Gabbett was now again a civilian and returned to Atlanta. By July 1865 he
renewed his profession as a civil engineer and architect, opening an office on Hunter Street
between Loyd and Washington. A few days later he formed a partnership with Calvin Fay, a former
employee of the Etowah Manufacturing and Mining Company of Bartow County. Together, they
advertised their ability to prepare “Plans and specifications, and superintend the erection of every
class of buildings in Atlanta and vicinity.” By May 1866, Gabbett was involved in contracting
stone, brick, and wood work for a five story cotton factory to be constructed by the Chattahoochee
manufacturing Company four miles from West Point, Georgia.”

In August 1868, Gabbett was listed as a member of the “Executive Committee” of Atlanta’s
Fourth Ward Club of the Democratic Party.™

Late the next month he left Atlanta to return to Ireland. Stopping briefly in Savannah, by
November 20, 1868, he was in Dublin. There, he resided at 3 Lower Leeson Street and remained
through June 1, 1869. By the following July 6 he was at his boyhood home at Mount Minnett,
Ballybrood, Pallasgreen, County Limerick, where he remained. His wife, Sarah, continued to
spend much of her time in Dublin, and by 1877 she returned to Atlanta, where she boarded at at!
Marietta Street. Gabbett died in Ireland on August 16, 87a

SOURCES

|. Letter from Tony Storan, Limerick County Library, Ireland, Feb. 26, 1996; Findagrave #75727729.

2. Robert Manson Myers, ed., The Children of Pride (New Haven and London, 1972), 1657; Confederate
Veteran, 19 (August, 1911), 394-95; Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, Nov. 5, 1858; Atlanta Directory (1859-60), 85.

3. Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, Feb. 22, 1860.

4. Ibid., Mar. 19, 1860.

5. Ibid., June 5, 1860.

6. Ibid., May 25, Dec. 21, 1860, June 23, 1861.

4. Ibid. Aug. 1, 16, Sept. 1, 1861: Compiled Service Records, RG109, National Archives, Cobb’s Georgia
Legion, William Gabbett File.

8. Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, Apr. 4, 1862; CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File.

9. Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, RG109 (M346, Roll 716), National Archives,
Morrison & Logan File; CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File; Compiled Service Records... Nitre and Mining
Bureau, RG109 (M258, Roll 111), National Archives, William Gabbett File.

10. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 48), John Bate File: CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File.

11. Confederate Payrolls, RG109, National Archives; Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 93, 202, 370, 438, 714,
870), W. R. Brannon, Cowley & McLemore, Grantland & Mcintosh, W. H. Herrin & Co., Henry Morris and Roberts
& Rountree Files; CSR... N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett File.

12. CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File.

13. Ibid.

14. Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 68, $1, 235, 370, 480, 562, 632, 704, 798, 799, 877, 972, 1064), John J.
Black, John D. Borin, Cyrus T. C. Deake, Henry W. Grantland, James M. Hull, A. C. Ladd, John L. Mcintosh, Martin
T. Moody, J. P. Phillips, S. K. Phillips, David A. Philpott, T. J. Robinson, C. A. Sprague, James M. Walker Files:
CSR...N.&M. Bureau, William Gabbett File; Huntsville Confederate, Feb. 4, 1863.

15.CSR...N.&M. Bureau, William Gabbett File.

16. C S Payrolls; Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 247), Ann Dillard File; Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, Feb. 7,
1863.

BZ99

17. Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 632, 835), John L. McIntosh, D. A. Ramsey Files; Huntsville Confederate,
Feb. 4, 1863; John Riley Hopkins Papers, Georgia Archives, Morrow; C S Payrolls.

18. Alabama Confederate Pension Applications, Jennie B. Thornton File.

19. The War of the Rebellion: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 1861-1865 (70
vols. In 128 books, Washington D.C., 1880-1901), Ser. 1, Vol. 23, Pt. 1: 246-50, 281-83, 287; Thomas Jordan and J.
P. Pryor, The Campaigns of Lieut. Gen. N. B. Forrest and of Forrest's Cavalry (New York, 1959 [1899]), 193; CSR,
Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File.

20. Huntsville Confederate, May 28, 1863.

21, Ibid. June 7, 1863.

22.CSR...N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett, Fred H. Smith Files; Unfiled Papers and Slips, RG199,
National Archives, William Gabbett File.

23. CSR...N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett File; CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File: Citizens
Papers (M346, Roll 24), Samuel B. Arnold File.

24.CSR...N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett File; CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File; Citizens
Papers (M346, Rolls 131, 780), T. J. Byrne, Franc M. Paul Files.

25. CS Payrolls; CSR... N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett File; CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett
File; Citizens Papers (M346, Rol I 131, 480), T. J. Byrne, James M. Hull Files. Rogers apparently hired “thirty two
negroes” from the September-November 1863 Nitre Bureau camp near Kingston, Georgia, to help him construct a
furnace near Cartersville. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 881), J. L. Rogers File.

26. Ibid. (M346, Roll 68), John J. Black File; Unfiled Papers & Slips, William Gabbett File; CSR, Cobb’s
Legion, William Gabbett File, FinAagracs *t HP GE2E 1427 CI m, Hull),

27. Ibid.; Citizens ae (M346, Rolls 68, 1064), John J. Black, James M. Walker Files.

28. Unfiled Papers & Slips, William Gabbett File.

29. J. R. Hopkins Papers}.

30. CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File; Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 68, 1064), John J. Black, James
M. Walker Files.

31. CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File

32. Unfiled Papers & Slips, William Gabbett File.

33. J. R. Hopkins Papers; CSR... N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett File; Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 68).
John J. Black File; CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File.

34. Letter Received by the Confederate Adjutant and Inspector General 1861-1865, RG109 (M474, Roll
114), National Archives, File 1059-G-1864.

35. CSR, Cobb’s Legion, William Gabbett File; Atlanta (Macon) Daily Intelligencer, Sept. 18, 1864; J. R.
Hopkins Papers.

36. Nathaniel A. Pratt Nitre and Mining Bureau Letterbook, 1864-65, MS 302, Hargrett Collection, Special
Collections, University of Georgia, 5, 404; J. R. Hopkins Papers; Findagrave #68262151 (W. H. Hull). Bolling A.
Stovall’s brother was Confederate Brigadier General Marcellus A. Stovall.

37. J. R. Hopkins Papers; N. A. Pratt Letterbook, 233; 241.

38. Ibid., 586.

39. Ibid., 12, 182, 184, 383, 385, 537; N. & M. Bureau, William Gabbett File.

AO. Pratt Letter book, 174, 175, 404, 501, 586.

41. Ibid., 70, 361, 372, 404, 619.

42. J. R. Hopkins Papers; Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 49, Pt. 1:99; Pt. 2: 289-90.

43. Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, July 6, 18, 1865; Augusta Daily Constitutionalist, May 15, 1866. By 1867
Fay had a new partner, Max V.D. Corput, formerly of Rome, Georgia. Barnwell’s Atlanta City Directory (1867), 154.
137, 169.

44. Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 18, 1868.

45. William McNaught Papers, Atlanta Historical Society, Atlanta; Sholes’ Directory of the City of Atlanta
(1877), 163; Findagrave #134863567 (Wm. Gabbett). Without a visual image of Gabbett’s tombstone, one wonders
if he really died in 1878. 1876 makes more sense if his wife stuck it out with him until his demise.