The private mining of Kingston Saltpeter Cave, 1861-62

THE PRIVATE MINING OF KINGSTON SALTPETER CAVE, 1861-62
Marion O. Smith

Bartow County’s Kingston Saltpeter Cave is Georgia’s most historic spelean site. Mined
for saltpeter on at least three occasions, 1804, 1810, and 1861-64, it was the scene of many
social outings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and in the mid-1900s it
was commercially open to the public. A little over 2,000 feet long, with two entrances, it has
been the subject of numerous newspaper accounts, of which the following 1839 description is
the earliest known:

[T]he cavern opens on the east side of a small mountain. . . . On arriving
_ . . we found our entrance ... to be. . . about fifteen feet in height, and
perhaps as many in width. . . . After having penetrated into the mountain perhaps
three hundred feet, by an angle of about 30 degrees, rendered difficult, if not
dangerous, from the number of large stones in our way . . . we found ourselves
in a large and capacious chamber, with a smooth, level and firm floor. . . .

From this chamber there is but one avenue leading further into the cavern,
and through it we had to pass for some distance on our hands and knees, when
we again found space enough to proceed erect, and ascending a steep hill by an
avenue 100 feet in length and from 10 to 30 in width, we entered another
chamber... .

We . . . perceived avenues leading from this chamber in various
directions, and into configuous rooms of greater or less dimensions. . . .

[T]he bat-room is the most extensive which the cavern contains. Itis also
enclosed by an immense and finely arched roof; supported by pillars and columns

composed entirely of stalactites of lime. . . . The roof is overspread with a
thousand icicles and spars, white as shining marble... .
Thus we passed onward from one chamber to another... till we arrived

by a long and narrow alley, to the opposite side of the mountain; and here we
found a small opening, but too steep and narrow to afford us an egress, and we
turned to retrace our steps. . . .’ |

About 2847, William C. Hardin (1798-1854), a planter-banker from Rome, became the
owner of the cave and settled nearby. When he died his son Mark Anthony Hardin (1830-1914)
inherited the property and held it the rest of his life. In 1848 young Hardin entered the United
States Military Academy at West Point, New York, but the next year he resigned to become the
enrolling clerk of the Georgia senate. During 1859-60 he was a state representative and the
latter year the census taker listed him as a farmer with real and personal holdings worth
respectively $15,000 and $12,000.”

During the winter and spring of 1860-61 the long-threatened breakup of the Union
became a reality when eleven states, including Georgia, seceded and formed a Confederacy.
The crisis soon erupted in hostilities when cannon fire was used to force the Federals to
surrender Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Both sides called for troops and preparations for war
were begun in earnest. i.

The Confederacy possessed inadequate material, and except for munitions and arms
seized in the various Federal forts and arsenals, had little with which to carry on a prolonged

conflict. The southerners realized this and soon began to implement the manufacture of arms
and ammunition. Powder and its ingredients were a great concern and a number of private,
state, and Confederate enterprises sought to remedy this deficiency.

In May 1861, a short announcement was made in a number of Georgia and Tennessee
newspapers that "a company has been formed at Kingston, of which Col. John D. Gray is a
prominent member, for the purpose of commencing immediately to manufacture powder." This
mill was never built, but the same article noted that the saltpeter cave "near that place contains
an abundance of nitre."°

On the 15th of the same month Reverend Charles W. Howard (1811-1876) wrote the
editors of the Atlanta Southern Confederacy to answer their request about the previous
"manufacture of Gunpowder" in Cass (soon to become Bartow) County. Howard had already
met with Governor Joseph E. Brown to call his attention "to the fact that the facilities for
making Gunpowder in this vicinity were very great," and to suggest "the appointment of a
competent, scientific and practical chemist to examine the quanity and quality of the Salt-peter
earth in the Cave near Kingston." But, fearing the Governor would "not have leisure to attend
to this suggestion," he wanted to address the paper’s readers. After telling about the mining of
the cave during the Cherokee Nation days, Howard noted that the cave was owned by Mark
Hardin, that it was "very large" with "the number of chambers great, " and that it was less than
three miles from the Western and Atlantic Railroad and within two miles of two good water
sources."

By late June 1861, the Southern Confederacy reported that Reverend Howard’s letter "has
awakened attention" and that Mark A. Hardin had “already made a large quantity of saltpetre,
and will at once commence the manufacture of powder on an extensive scale." About the same
time, another Atlanta newspaper made an exaggerated claim that Hardin was getting from the
cave “one thousand pounds per day,” with the supply being "regarded as inexhaustible."

During the summer of 1861 Mark A. Hardin contracted, at twenty-five cents a pound,
to deliver saltpeter to the Tennessee Military and Financial Board. The saltpeter was transported
by railroad to Nashville, and between August 20 and September 28 Hardin sent five shipments
totaling 1,90414 pounds. The latter month a Rome newspaper reported that Hardin was making
"an average of one hundred and twenty-five pounds a day," and noted that the cave operations
were “carried on under" his "superintendence," with the manager being "the same man who was
employed in 1812." About that time the Tennessee authorities transferred their contracts to the
Confederate government, and it is assumed that Hardin next sold his saltpeter to the Ordnance
Department.°

By January 1862, the editor of the Atlanta Commonwealth, either John S. Peterson
(c1820-f11870) or William G. Whidby (c1840-/11870), had recently visited the cave. He asserted
that an analysis of the dirt indicated it was very rich, with each bushel of earth "yielding from
fifteen to eighteen pounds" of saltpeter. He also announced that Hardin’s company had been
reorganized, by recognizing that Massey and Lansdell of Atlanta had purchased a half interest
‘n the endeavor. Plans were under way to increase development of the cave, to raise dirt to the
surface by a steam engine, to construct a furnace for twelve kettles, and to employ twenty-five
men. It was predicted that when everything was ready “one thousand pounds per day will be
made." E. D. Cheshire was then the superintendent of the operation :

The organization of the new company, called the Bartow Saltpetre Works, eventually
consisted of at least six partners, with Mark A. Hardin as president. The others were Robert
J. Massey, William A. Lansdell, Gabriel N. Wright, Elijah D. Cheshire, and James C. Young.

Massey (c1830-
c1879) and Lans-
dell (c1830-/11885)
were Fulton County
druggists; Wright
(c1835-f11870) was
a Rome brick-
mason; Cheshire
(c1826-1903) had
been a Kingston
dry goods merchant
who more recently
had been employed
at the Atlanta firm
of John N. Beach
and Sydney Root;
and Young (1822-
1880) was a promi-
nent Cass (Bartow)
County farmer.*
In Spring
1862, the Confed-
erate Congress
subdivided the
Ordnance Depart-
ment by creating on
April 11 a Nitre
Bureau to work
saltpeter caves and
to establish artifi-
cial niter beds.
The South was
carved into districts
and a superinten-
dent for each was
appointed. On
April 24 Captain
Fred H. Smith was announced as the head of District No. 8, which consisted of southeastern
Tennessee and "the Nitre counties of . . . Georgia." All "authorized agents of the Confederate
Government for the purchase or manufacture of Saltpetre" were to report to him and all
unrecognized agents were to cease their efforts. Those “parties engaged in the manufacture will
deliver and sell only to authorized agents" from the new bureau. On the 30th the government
price for saltpeter was raised to seventy-five cents a pound, with deductions being made "for
impurities exceeding ten per cent." A few days later, on May 19, the War Department
sanctioned the impressment of saltpeter caves which were not being efficiently worked.’
For reasons now unknown the promised production by the Bartow Saltpetre Works
company never materialized and their cave was consequently in danger of being seized. On May
27, 1862, Hardin and the board of directors advertised that on June 16 they would sell fifty
shares or a half interest in their operation. The sale was to be held "on the premises," and
besides the cave, the property included forty acres of land and a timber interest in 500 additional
acres. But the sale never took place. The state authorities were already in process of taking
over the cave. However, the Confederate War Department, after consulting with Georgia’s
adjutant general, on May 31 issued Special Orders No. 125, in which the Nitre Bureau was
"authorized and required to impress . . . the Nitre Cave near Kingston . . . at present worked
by Massey, Lansdell, Hardin & others." By June 15 this order was carried out and the cave
ceased being mined by a private company. From then on it would be worked on government
account by employees assigned to it, and referred to as Bartow Cave.*°

It is not known how much saltpeter was made by the Bartow Saltpetre Works. In a July
31, 1862, report, the chief of the Nitre Bureau, Major Isaac M. St. John, wrote that “During
the last two weeks of private management the yield of the cave did not reach eighty pounds per
day," but under government management it was already up to "400 per working day." The only
surviving figures of saltpeter delivered by the company occurred during the last weeks before
and just after the seizure of the cave, when on May 11 and 18, June 11 and 14, and July 10,
respectively 1,994, 1,110, 2,031, 191, and 465 pounds were sold to the Nitre Bureau, all at the
government price of seventy-five cents a pound.”

The following inventory of the articles taken at the cave indicate that the Bartow Saltpetre
Works were rather substantial:

1 Dwelling House 1 Large Furnace 900 ft. Plank

1 Kitchen 2 Small Furnaces 3 Wheelbarrows
2 Double Shanties 1 Potash Burner 20 Empty Barrels
4 Single Shanties 1 Potash Cooler 12 Buckets

1 Stable with Crib [?] Kettles 2 Windlasses

1 Shed 100 x 60 ft 3 [7] Vats 12 Axes

1 Shed 30 x 40 ft 1 Well Pump 6 old shovels

1 Shed 20 x 30 ft 1 Stove & Piping 1 old hoe

1 Dirt House 2 Settling Troughs 2 old mattocks
5 mules 2 Hogsheads 6 miners Lamps
2 wagons with gear 5 Tanks 6 Faucets

1 cart 200 ft. Piping 4 Dippers

1 Single Buggy & Harness 1 Engine 1 Ladle

1 Plough & Gear 1 ft. Rope 1 Wrench

40 ash Hoppers 1 Band 35 Dirt Hoppers

Soon, the members of the company sought and obtained from the Confederate War Department
the appointment of a board of arbitrators "to ascertain... a just compensation . . . for the
Steam Engine, machinery, kettles, tools shedding .. . nitrous earth . . . and growing timber."
The company and government were to select one commissioner each and these two men were
to choose a third man to act as umpire. The company picked Amherst W. Stone (c1824-/1187 8),
a Vermont-born Atlanta lawyer, and the government chose Joseph LeConte (1823-1901), of
Columbia, South Carolina, a Nitre Bureau chemist, who in turn elected as judge George G. Hull
(1829-1885), a civil engineer and superintendent of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad. These

8T

men met in Atlanta between December 22, 1862, and January 22, 1863, and ultimately decided
that the company was entitled to $28,580.65 in remuneration, which was paid the following
April 11. All the while the case was pending the Bartow Saltpetre Works had authorized Robert
J. Massey to act in their behalf. During the same period the Nitre Bureau paid Warren Akin
(181 Li): a Bartow County lawyer and soon to be Confederate congressman, $2,500 for legal
Services.

Following the take-over of the cave and adjacent property, each of the six partners of the
Bartow Saltpetre Works company continued to contribute in one capacity or another to the
efforts of the Confederate Nitre Bureau. In July 1862, Mark A. Hardin supplied bacon, rope,
whiskey barrels, and iron for use in the 8th District, and that month and the next he hired three
slaves as laborers at his former cave. On July 19 the same year the firm of Massey and
Lansdell sold forty-one gallons of cottonseed oil "For Lights in Bartow Cave." Between August
and November 1862, Massey and Wright, presumably the erstwhile Bartow Cave partners,
became large potash contractors in north Georgia, which was continued under the name Massey
and Company, January-September 1863. Late in the war, January 1865, W. A. Lansdell worked
for the Nitre Bureau at Greensboro, Georgia. Between June and November 1862, E. D.
Cheshire served twice as superintendent and once as foreman of the government operation at
Bartow Cave. In December 1862, he was clerk and bookkeeper of Georgia’s newly created
Nitre District No. 14 at Kingston. In February and March 1863, he was a potash contractor
with Marietta residents Milledge G. Whitlock (1828-1921) and John R. Winters (1824-1902),
and in December 1864, he was the Nitre Bureau assistant at Albany, Georgia. In November
1862 and April 1863, James C. Young supplied nine buckets and an iron safe and Fairbanks
scale for use at Bartow Cave, and during January-March 1865 he was superintendent of the
saltpeter works at Lexington, Georgia.”

FOOTNOTES

1. Resolutions of a National Council of the Cherokee Chiefs held at Eustenalee, April 4-10,
1804, and W. Reed to Return J. Meigs, January 16, 1810, Records of the Cherokee Indian
Agency in Tennessee, 1801-1835, Record Group 75 (Microcopy 208, Rolls 2, 5), National
Archives; Wetumpka Argus & Commercial Advertiser, June 19, 1839, quoting the Macon
Southern Post; Marion O. Smith, "A History of Kingston Saltpeter Cave," GSS Bulletin 1971,
p. 19,

2. Imogene B. Belew and Jodeen B. Brown, comps., Old Cass County (Now Bartow) Georgia
Deeds (Alpharetta, Ga., 1993), 174; Lucy J. Cunyus, The History of Bartow County Formerly
Cass (Easley, S.C., 1971 [1933]), 61-62; William C. Hardin Collection, Georgia Archives,
Atlanta; Atlanta Journal, May 9, 1914; Atlanta Constitution, May 9, 1914; 1860 Census, Ga.,
Cass, 16th Dist., 182.

3. Atlanta Southern Confederacy, May 18, 1861; Memphis Daily Appeal, May 21, 1861;
Macon Georgia Journal and Messenger, May 22, 1861; Clarksville [Tennessee] Jeffersonian,
May 29, 1861. John D. Gray was probably the Graysville, Catoosa County, Georgia, resident,
who in 1862 worked a lead mine near Charleston, Tennessee. Confederate Papers Relating to
Citizens or Business Firms, Record Group 109 (Microcopy 346, Roll 372), National Archives,
John D. Gray file.

4. Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 288-90; Atlanta Southern Confederacy, May 18, 1861.

5. Charleston Daily Courier, June 28, 1861, quoting the Atlanta Southern Confederacy;
Augusta Daily Constitutionalist, June 27, 1861, quoting the Atlanta Commonwealth.

6. "Military Board" Record Book, April 24, 1861-January 9, 1862, Army of Tennessee
Records, Record Group 4, Tennessee Library and State Archives, Nashville; Charleston Daily
Courier, September 18, 1861, quoting the Rome Southerner, The War of the Rebellion: A
Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128 books
(Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), Ser. 1, Vol. 4: 398, 412-13.

7. Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs (2 vols., Athens, Ga., 1969 [1954]), 1: 573;
1860 Census, Ga., Fulton, Atlanta, Ist Ward, 713; (1870), Glynn, Brunswick, 15; DeKalb,
Stone Mountain Dist., 133; Rome Tri-Weekly Courier, January 16, 1862, quoting the Atlanta
Commonwealth.

8. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 46), Bartow Saltpetre Works file; Atlanta Daily Intelligencer,
June 11, 1862; Atlanta directories (1859-85); 1860 Census, Ga., Fulton, Atlanta, 2nd Ward, 74;
Ath Ward, 797; Floyd, Rome Dist., 84; (1870), Floyd, Rome Dist., 919 G. M., 32; The
Southern Business Directory (1854), p. 239; Atlanta Constitution, April 25, 1903; Rome 7ri-
Weekly Courier, January 16, 1862, quoting the Atlanta Commonwealth, Cunyus, History of
Bartow County, 105.

9. Official Records, Ser. 4, Vol. 4: 1054-55, 1124; Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, May 11,
1862.

10. Ibid., June 11, 1862; Official Records, Ser. 2, Vol. 4: 28; Citizens Papers (M346, Roll
46), Bartow Saltpetre Works file.

11. Official Records, Ser. 2, Vol. 4: 28; Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 46, 403, 404), Bartow
Saltpetre Works, M. A. Harden, and M. A. Hardin files.

12. Ibid., (M346, Rolls 46, 6), Bartow Saltpetre Works and Warren Akin files; Dictionary
of American Biography (LeConte); Paul H. Bergeron, ed., The Papers of Andrew Johnson (14
vols. to date, Knoxville, 1967-97), 8: 187; Robert M. Myers, ed., The Children of Pride (New
Haven, Conn., 1972), 1557-58; Cunyus, History of Bartow County, 42-43.

13. Citizens Papers (M346, Rolls 403, 665, 161, 1103, 1155), M. A. Harden, Massey and
Lansdell, Massey and Wright, Massey and Company, E. D. Cheshire, and J. C. Young files;
Nitre and Mining Bureau Letter Book 1864-65, MS 302, Hargrett Collection, University of
Georgia, Athens, pp. 354, 456, 384, 397, 520, 552; Confederate Payrolls (Bartow Cave),
Record Group 109, National Archives; Ann B. Seymour, ed., Cobb County Georgia Cemeteries
(3 vols., Marietta, Ga., 1984-94), 1: 192; Sarah B.G. Temple, The First Hundred Years: A
Short History of Cobb County in Georgia (Atlanta, 1935), 398, 405; Albany Patriot, January
4, 1865. According to family tradition, Hardin became a captain in the First Kentucky Cavalry,
CSA, but his name is not on the rolls of that regiment. He was captured on a blockade runner
April 25, 1863, while attempting to take a load of cotton to Cuba, and held a prisoner the
remainder of the war at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Atlanta Journal, May 9, 1914; Official
Records, Ser. 2, Vol. 7: 153; Vol. 8: 406, 408; William C. Hardin Collection, Georgia
Archives.