Civil War Saltpeter mining near McMinnville

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CIVIL WAR SALTPETER MINING NEAR McMINNVILLE
Marion 0. Smith

From the time of the first white settlements until the end of the Civil War,
saltpeter (potassium nitrate) was mined from numerous natural caves in Tennes-
see to be used as the main ingredient in gunpowder. Saltpeter mining was fre-
quently conducted by individuals to supply their own needs, but in times of
national crisis sizable companies were sometimes formed.

Described as simply as possible, saltpeter was obtained by the following pro-
cess. Vats or hoppers were constructed either inside or outside the cave, near
a water source, and filled iy cave earth. Water was leached through the vats
one or more times and the liquid "beer" containing calcium or cave saltpeter
was collected in troughs. About the same time, water was leached through other
vats filled with wood ashes and that solution was also collected. Then both
solutions were put together and a chemical reaction took place, whereby calcium
was precipitated and potassium substituted. The resulting solution was filtered
to remove the lime or calcium and the remainder was then boiled in kettles to
evaporate sie water ald form crystals. The saltpeter crystals were dried and

sti packed in bags, boxes, or kegs for shipment. i powder mill the crude salt-
| peter was refined and then combined with ae (also called brimstone) and
charcoal, in the usual ratio of 75, i5, and i to form gunpowder +

In Warren and surrounding counties at least 30) saltpeter caves are reported.
Big Bone in Van Buren and Hubbard's in Warren are among the best known, both of
which were “discovered” about 1805 or 1806. Big Bone was mined before, during,
and after the War of 1812 by johnc. Wilson, a McMinnville businessman and sur-
veyor, and Randolph Ross of Rockbridge County, Virginia. There were sixty share-
holders in this venture. Little is known about Hubbard's except: there is an in-
scription on the cave wall, "Valentine Hoover. His Salt Serine April 4, 1810,"

and internal evidence suggests it was mined well before the Civil War. Both

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caves were also mined in 1861-63 by private contractors, James Randals at Big
Bone and the Hill family at Hubbard's. 2

The early years of the nineteenth century and the Civil War were the times
that saltpeter mining was most extensive. Actually, by 1850 very little mining,
even for home use, was probably being done. But by the mid and late 1850's
there was a revival of interest in the Cumberland Mountains of middle Tennessee.

The "White County Mining and Saltpetre Mining and Manufacturing Company," com-
posed of Montgomery C. Dibrell (1813-1881) of Sparta and Thomas B. Eastland
(ca.1806-1864) of Bon Air, was incorporated by the legislature February 21, 1856,
and by 1859 Jacob Goedel, a New York City importer, had bought other persons'
interest, including that of M. C. Dibrell, in Big Bone Cave. >

John G. Buxman (ca.1827-ca.1899), a German native residing in Warren County,
worked for one or more of the newly formed saltpeter companies, and claimed to
know more about saltpeter making "than any other man in the State." His name
with the date "Sept. 1856" is on the wall of White County's Cave Hill Saltpeter
Pit No. 1, which may possibly be the site where just before the Civil War Walter
Mead, Sr. and Jr. of New York City were "putting up works for the purpose of
manufacturing salt-peter on rather a large scale" at "property known as Englands
Cave."" In the summer of 1861 Buxman analyzed the earth af Big Bone Cave for the
Tennessee Military Board and then fled North, first to New York City, and then
to Washington, D. C., where he got a job as a treasury clerk. 4

In the spring of 1861, before Tennessee officially joined the Confederacy, a
Military and Financial Board was created to help place the State on a war footing.
Samuel D. Morgan of Nashville began a letter writing campaign to persons through-
out Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas be find sources of saltpeter and powder.
About the same time, May 6, 1861, the legislature authorized the governor, with

the consent of the Military Board, to manufacture gunpowder, purchase or lease

lead or saltpeter mines, make contracts for gun manufacture or other war munitions,
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and to "make such advancements in payment .. . as may be advisable to insure
the ready and speedy supply thereof for the use of the State

During 1861 State officials made quite a number of contracts with private in-
dividuals and companies for the procurement of saltpeter. These were scattered
over much of Tennessee, as well as Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas. The only
known conEre cen ene ton the counties immediately surrounding McMinnville were
B. J. Hill, James Randals, and Thomas H. Smith.

On May 10, 1861, the Military Board agreed to pay to the Warren County Salt-
petre Company 25¢ per pound "for the first twenty thousand pounds." It was "to
be a good commercial article, to be delivered at the Depot in Nashville, and the
freight from M'Minnville . .. to be paid by the State." The company consisted
of Benjamin J. Hill, Dr. J. L. Jones (1831-1902), Jabez G. Mitchell, and John M.
(1818-1905) and Reuben M. Drake (born ca.1822). Between October 12 and December
12, 1861, the company, also known as B. J. Hill & Co., delivered to Nashville
13581/2 pounds of saltpeter, at an actual price of 30¢ to 40¢ a pound. It is
not positively known where this saltpeter was made, but Hubbard's Cave, near
Irving College, is suspected.

Jacob Goedel, if he was in Tennessee at all during the secession crisis, ap-
parently went back North. Although it is unclear how he became involved, some-
time in mid-May, 1861, James Randals, a forty-nine year old native Kentuckian,
obtained a contract with the State to make saltpeter at Big Bone Cave. He was
listed as a "Trader" in the 1860 Van Buren census, worth only $570 in personal

property. His daughter Hortense (1842-1904) married Henry Clay Greer (1839-1914),

whose name is in the cave with the date April 17, 1858, and his son Benjamin was

captain, Company I, 16th Tennessee Infantry, CSA, whose name is also in the cave
with the date 1861. After the war James Randals moved to White County where he
kept a saw mill, and by the mid-1870's. he moved to Calahan County, Texas. The

only record of amounts of saltpeter he delivered are vouchers dated September 28

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and November 2, 1861, and February 5, March l, April 30, and July 1/7, 1863, which
show a total of 4,017 pounds. In 1861 he was paid 30¢ per pound and in 1863 /5¢
per pound, except 195 pounds on July 17 which were ‘Rescued from within the
enemy's lines" for which he received a dollar a pound. /

The names of a few of the workers at Big Bone Cave were: Solomon Simmons, who
lived in Boone County, Arkansas, in 1906, Bryant Simmons [or Seamans], and the
Slatten brothers, A. C., H., and John. On his Confederate pension application in
1909, John stated:

I worked in the Cave making saltpetre .. . having been detailed,
with others for this particular work, it was not at my volition--
I had rather gone on and carried a gun, but I simply obeyed
orders--and went and worked when and where sent, often crawling
on my stomach dragging a sack of dirt behind me in the dark--and
worked hard. 8

Sometime in 1861, Thomas H. Smith (born ca. 1825), a native Ohio physician
living in Van Buren County, wrote a government official that he wished "to open
a Salt Petre Cave on the 'Bone Tract' Sequestrated as the property of J. Goodell
[Goedel]." He wanted "an order of the Court to Lease him the ground for the War
at nominal Rent." It is not known whether he wanted to work a branch of Big Bone
Cave itself or one of the other nearby caves. However, on December 4, 1861, he
delivered 462 pounds of saltpeter at Nashville. In Spring, 1863, according to a
1911 statement by John Slatten, Dr. Smith examined and discharged from Big Bone
Cave, his brother, A. C., due to "Rheumatism and other disabilitys."9

In an April 27, 1861, response to a letter from Samuel D. Morgan, Dr. James H.
Snodgrass (1836-f£1.1899) of Sparta gave a short report of the White County Salt-
petre Mining Company:

Mess. M. C. Dibrell & Co. owns the important caves in this
county[.] They claim to have 3 of the best caves in the
mountain-district[.] They discontinued operation for want of
funds -- by the way they made considerable quantity but dis-
posed of all but two or 3. bbls -- They have some few Kettles
—— & Hoppers on hand. .. .- They use comon wood ashes as a

potash. The earth in two caves is inexhaustable - with water
power for other purposes -- powder mills & c[.]

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Except for a July 19, 1861, advertisement in a Nashville newspaper, nothing °
further is known about the White County company. Then, "one half interest in
three valuable and extensive Saltpetre Caves in White County, easy of access"
was offered for sale because the owners were "unable to furnish the necessary
capital." Expounding that it was probable that "a large and profitable contract
fly be had from the State, the outlay would soon be returned," the owners added
that the "whole would be sold if desired." It is not yet known who, if anyone,
bought or acquired an interest in these three caves or which caves they were.
One possibility, although remote, is that the Meads of New York City acquired
their White County interest at this time. 19
On July 29, 1861, James E. Bailey (1822-1885) of the Military and Financial
Board instructed Edwin R. Glascock (ca.1819-1891) of Nashville to visit salt-
peter caves near Chattanooga, Sauta Cave in north Alabama, and "Big bone cave in
Yan Buren Cty worked by Mr Randal & other caves in that & adjoining counties."
Glascock was charged with getting "parties to work all the Caves where salpetre
can be made" and he was authorized "to make eeG esas all the salpetre that
can be made in eight & Ten months at 25 cents per pound delivered on the rail
roads." He was to "observe particularily & take notes of the quantity being

produced at each cave, the number of persons employed," and make a “report in

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writing." Unfortunately, his report, if actually made, no longer exists.
At the beginning of the war there were only two small powder mills in the
entire South, in Pickens District, South Carol iia: and at Sycamore Creek, Cheat-
ham County, Tennessee, under the proprietorship of Edward S. Cheatham (1818-1878)
and Samuel Watson (1807-1876). Later in the war other southern powder mills were
constructed, with the largest being at Augusta, Georgia, under Colonel George W.
Rains. In Tennessee, the capacity of the Sycamore mill was increased, a salt-
peter refinery was built at Nashville, and a new powder mill was constructed

near Manchester by William S. Whiteman, a Nashville and Coffee County paper manu-
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facturer. The State Military Board contracted with Whiteman on May 27, 186],
and were to "furnish him all the materials, for manufacturing" and advanced him
$15,000. By late 1861 his mill was in operation. Work ceased ae Sycamore Powder
Mill in February, 1862, when Nashville fell to the Federals, and the Manchester
or Stone Fort mill was destroyed by the Union army a month or two later. After
that time the vast majority of middle Tennessee saltpeter was shipped to the
Augusta, Georgia, powder mill. 12

In late 1861 and early 1862 Frederick Wright was an employee at the Manchester
Powder Mill. James H. Whiteman's and his names are on the wall of a remote pas-
sage in Big Bone Cave with the date December 7, 1861. They probably went to the
cave on a tour of inspection, since within a few weeks of that date Wright had
complained in a letter about the poor quality of saltpeter being produced at Bone
Cave. Sones H. (born ca.1842) was a son of William S. Whiteman and had already
briefly served in the Ist (Feild's) Tennessee Infantry, CSA. Wright was later
employed at various saltpeter caves in Marion County, Tennessee, and northern
Alabama. 13

Late in 1861, several months after Tennessee had seceded, the various contracts
made by the Military Board, including those for saltpeter, were transferred to
the Confederate government. Between then and early 1863 most of the State salt-
peter contractors, except James Randals in Van Buren and the Hill family in
Warren, disappeared from the records. After April, 1862, new contracts with
other individuals of the Cumberland Mountains were made by personnel of the recent-
ly created Confederate Nitre Bureau. 14

Upon the creation of the Nitre Bureau the Confederacy was divided into districts,
each wueew a superintendent who had several assistants and agents. Tennessee com-
prised two nitre districts. Number 7 embraced "Monroe, Roane, Cumberland and

1

White counties, and all nitre counties North and East,” and Number 8 embraced

"Polk, McMinn, Meigs, Rhea, Bledsoe and Van Buren, and all nitre counties to the

south and west" as well as the "nitre counties of the State of Georgia." Head-

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quarters of District / were at Knoxville, until it was captured in early Septem

ber, 1863, and then either at Jonesborough or Zollicoffer [Bluff City]. Head-
quarters of Number 8 were at Chattanooga until it was also captured in September,
1863. Then the district was combined with No. 9, north Alabama, and headquartered
variously at Dalton, Kingston, and Rome, Georgia, Blue Mountain, Montevallo, and
Gainesville, Alabama. Besides Chattanooga, there were District 8 nitre offices at
Athens, Shellmound [near Nickajack Cave, Marion County], and McMinnville.1°
District No. 7 superintendents were Lieutenant Robert H. Temple of Virginia
(April-October, 1862) and Captain Thomas James Finnie (October, 1862-1865). Dis-
trict No. 8 superintendents were captains Fred H. Smith of Kentucky (April, 1862-— :
July, 1863) and Irish-born William Gabbett of Georgia (July, 1863-1865). There
were several subordinate officers or agents in each district, but only those who p
were on duty at McMinnville will be mentioned. Lieutenant Bolling A. Stovall, |

a native Georgia civil engineer, was the "Ist" or "principal" assistant in District*

Wy,

No. 8, from April, 1862, through July, 1863, and the same in combined Districts

8 and 9 through October 15, 1864. Although headquartered at Chattanooga, he <
traveled throughout the district, making a number of stops in McMinnville. From
November 11, 1862, through July, 1863, William L. Ragsdale (born ca.1829), an na

Atlanta, Georgia, brick maker, was superintendent of the second division of Dis- . S

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trict Ho. 8, and was ee a baa irae he at Cea eh peek is a room dageuss to cane! bye

~~ ag > es r ‘ “, a ale hi
Mis abs Gted “SUperin bende ae, Hos

Samuel L. Colville (1819-1896). , The exact extent of cree Ss mAs en is
not known. 16

Individuals or firms from the counties around McMinnville who contracted to
produce saltpeter for either the Tennessee or Confederate governments, with the

date and amount delivered, are as follows:

A. C. & F. Anderson (1863) 1013 pounds
Caldwell & Griswold (1863) 297 pounds
Dani So Bouse” sae Lo Oe pounds
OE pi Finney & Brother 183326 63) : hae pounds S
7. Ge Gale (1863) 204 pounds

Bo J. Btl1 6 to. (1861) 13581/2 pounds

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Hil 1863 24
Phewse es Ret ee LS 188 3 Saad
eamnpyg car, (1863) 199 pounds
Allen | Medlen | ae ; ee pounds
Cleveland Payne 186 pounds
[F. E.?] Plumley [or ee]

James Randals (1861, 1863) 4017 pounds
James M. Safford (1861) 1576 pounds
John Slatten (1863) 240 pounds
7) Be See (1861) 462 pounds
Sperry & Birches (1863 707 Bags

Archa Sete and Francis Ae on 4 ca. 3i 3435s were White County ©
farmers near Cassville. A. J. (born ca.1824) and James Finney (born ca.1836)
were Warren County rock masons. Dantel Dodson (born ca.1830) was a Warren
Eartey Buakte Cloom ca, 1828) was Vem B Buses oss oie Powe & na Sou of Elijah Drelkte,
County a Oe C. Goff Geer ca. 1826) was fSted as a carpenter in
1850 and 1870, but just before the war was a "Trader in Stock." His peeidence
before the war was the Eastern District of Bledsoe County, but in 18/70, he was .
in Warren County's "Civil Dist. No 1 exclusive of the Town of McMinnville."
Samwell Hendersen€ b. Gen MIE? wars probably dhe ACHinnocllt mere hagk ,

Benjamin Jefferson Hill (1825-1880), a McMinnville merchant, by September, 1861,
was colonel of the 35th Tennessee Infantry, CSA, and in late 1864 was promoted
brigadier general. Allen Medlen or Medlin (born ca. 1826) was a farmer near
Sligo in the 14th District of DeKalb County. At different times he had partners
named Baker, Robinson, and Anderson. Because of their proximity, it is possible
his company mined either Franks or Copperas caves, both previously worked before
the War of 1812, and now flooded by Center Hill Lake. Plumley may have been
Finis E. Plumlee (1820-1864), a Van Buren County farmer. Sometime in the fall
of 1861 he contracted to supply saltpeter to the authorities at Nashville, and
borrowed $500 from the Branch Bank of Tennessee at Sparta to start his operation.
James M. Safford (1822-1907), Ohio-born geology professor at Cumberland University
in Lebanon and State geologist (1854-60, 1871-99), on June 17, 1861, contracted

to deliver to State authorities 10,000 pounds of saltpeter, at 25¢ per pound with

the State paying "the freight from the point of . . . manufacture in Wilson County."

John Slatten (1836-f£1.1911) was a Van Buren County resident who worked in Big Bone

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Cave. In February, March, and April, 1863, he sold saltpeter in his own name

to the Nitre Bureau, but whether he made it in Big Bone or another cave is un-
known. Sperry & Mitchell may have been from White County. The only clue is the
statement that Thomas Sperry had a grist mill on Town Creek about two miles above
Sparta where once there "was a saw mill and powder mill."1/

Cleveland [or Cleaveland] Payne (born ca. 1816) was a native Tennessee black-
smith living in Grundy County in 1850 and Marion County ten years later. WNitre
Bureau vouchers survive only for April and May, 1863, when Payne respectively
delivered 252 and 300 pounds of saltpeter to the McMinnville office. Apparently,
he had a number of detailed laborers to help him make saltpeter. In 1922 William
Harrison Lusk (1841-1927), a native of Hubbards Cove, Grundy County, then living
at Morrison, attempted to answer a questionnaire sent by the State Archivist to
Confederate veterans. Lusk, who ood barely able to write, stated that "His Co.
was Cleave Pane" and he joined in the fall of 1862 "nere Pelham Tenn" and was
“detail to make Salt Peter." Repeating himself somewhat he wrote, "mee and my
compney was ingaged in makin Sait peter[,] lived in a little Shak with little
cover[,] and not so much to eat doing the best we could[,]" and "Wher I was
workin i wood [go] hame [home] every Saduary night," implying that he worked six

days a week. He also made a list of his "compney":

dock Pane Bai Picknr{ 7 |

ben Pane Willis Warren

Sam Pane Will Warren
Mathew Sanders Will hamby

Jack Sanders Wes[?] Sanders
Dane Meeks James Lusk

Dan Clenin[?] John Hawk

Ben Piper Sid for Gid] Smith

The location of the cave Cleaveland Payne and his men worked is not now known,

but probably it was in Grundy County. 1®

According to two of his granddaughters, before the Civil War Moses Prater

made "gunpowder" from "a cave in the Lost Creek Community [of White County]

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known as the Ben White Cave, the Fields Dodson Cave, or simply the Old Saltpeter

Cave." Supposedly during the war he was “assigned to special duty" to make
"powder for the Confederacy" at the same cave. Prater (born ca. 1823) in 1860
lived in Van Buren County and was listed as a "Common laborer." The cave he
worked is either Lost Creek Cave or Big Lost Creek Saltpeter Cave. 19

The known saltpeter caves in the counties near McMinnville tally as follows:

DeKALB COUNTY

Avant Cave Overall Cave

Gracey Cave Snow Hill Cave

Indian Grave Point Cave Temperance Saltpeter Cave
Myers Cave Williams Cave

Franks Cave

GRUNDY COUNTY

Powder Mill Cave R. C. (Ira) Winton Cave No. 1
Fultz Saltpeter Cave Grigg's Saltpeter Cave
Hubbard Saltpeter Cave Woodlee Cave

Laurel Creek Saltpeter Cave Moses Saltpeter Cave

Payne Saltpeter Cave A. Smartt Cave

VAN BUREN COUNTY

Cagle Saltpeter Cave Flivet Cave

W. R. Johnson Cave Simmons Cave

Cane Creek Saltpeter Cave Slern Hole

McElroy Cave [Bailey's W. McElroy] Litchford Saltpeter Cave
Skunk Hole Crudlink Cave

Rice Cave A Natty Little Saltpeter Cave

Big Bone Cave ) DIG (Hitchcock's Peter Pile Pit)
Camps Gulf Cave mm encies Guly Caue

WARREN COUNTY

[Stoke] Etter [Saltpeter] Cave Hubbard's Cave
Henshaw Entrance, Cumberland Caverns Solomon Saltpeter Cave
Rodgers Cave Dohn Sibos Caut - .

WHITE COUNTY

Big Lost Creek Saltpeter Cave Cherry Saltpeter Cave

Lost Creek Cave Cave Hill Saltpeter Pits 1 & 2
Walker Mountain Saltpeter Cave Officer Cave

Pollard Saltpeter Cave Rose Cave

Cassville Saltpeter Pit |. Blue Spring Cave 207

More certainly exist. Much research remains to be done to discover both "new"

~~ Elbe

saltpeter caves in the field and additional names in documents of men who either

owned or contracted to work a saltpeter cave. If any reader of fae above article
has information about the location, history, or legend of a Cumberland Plateau
saltpeter cave, or any genealogical information which will help further identify
any of the above mentioned Civil War contractors and the caves they worked,

please contact:

Marion O. Smith, NSS 9164
PocOs BOX 8276

UT Station

Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
1-615-974-2449 (day)
1-615-584-4927 aventae
1-615-573-1930

FOOTNOTES

lgurton Faust, 'The History of Saltpetre Mining in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky,"
The Filson Club History Quarterly, XLI (July, 1967), 254-59.

2Thomas C. Barr, Jr., Caves of Tennessee, State of Tennessee Division of Geo-
logy Bulletin 64 (Nashville, 1961), passim; Tennessee Cave Survey files, 124
Tusculum Road, Antioch, Tennessee 37013; Walter Womack, McMinnville at a Mile-
stone 1810-1960 (McMinnville: Standard Publishing Co., Inc., and Womack Printing
Co.., 1960), 42, 453; Raleigh North Carolina Star, June 6, 1821; List of. names
copied from the walls of Hubbard's Cave, Spring, 1975 (in possession of M. O.
Smith).

3Acts of the State of Tennessee Passed at the First Session of the Thirty-
First General Assembly, for the Years 1855-6 (Nashville: Printed by G. C. Tor-
bett and Company, 1856), 170-71; Letter from Leona (Mrs. Claude M.) Jenkins,
1301 Main Ave., Clinton, Iowa 52732, November 4 & 5, 1983; Van Buren County
Deed Book B, page 567;~. New York City directories (1853-59), passim.

4LeRoy P. Graf and Ralph W. Haskins, eds., The Papers of Andrew Johnson (7 vols.,
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1967-86), IV, 657, V, 176n, VI, 641-42;
samuel D. Morgan Papers, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; Wash-
ington, D. C. city directories (1898-1900), passim.

Marion 0. Smith, "Confederate Saltpetre Mining Northern Alabama," Alabama
Historical Quarterly, XLII (Spring & Summer, 1980), 72-74; Public Acts of the
State of Tennessee, Passed at the Extra Session of the Thirty-Third General Assem-
bly, April, 1801 (Nashville: J. 0. .Grittith & Co., 1861), 31-32.

6Military and Financial Board. Records, 1861--Addition, page 41, Tennessee
State Library and Archives, Nashville; Jeannette T. Acklen, compiler, Tennessee
Records: Tombstone Inscriptions and Manuscripts (2 vols., Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Company, 1967 [1933]), I, 145, 156; 1860 Census, Tenn., Warren, 103,
135; B. J. Hill & Co. file, Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business
Firms, Record Group 109, National Archives.

71860 Census, Tenn., Van Buren, 58; (1870), White, 5th District, Shady Grove
P. O., 153; Military and Financial Board . . . Addition, page 5/7; Penelope John-
son Allen, Leaves From the Family Tree (Easley, S. C.: Southern Historical Press,

1982), 104-5; List of names copied from the walls of Big Bone Cave, December 8,
1984 (in possession of M. 0. Smith); Tennesseans in the Civil War (2 vols., Nash-

Clb.

9

ville: Civil War Centennial Commission, 1964-65), I, 208; McMinnville New Era,
January 24, 1878; James Randals file, Citizens Papers. "

Solomon Simmons file (14824), Confederate Pension Application, Arkansas; A. C.
and John Slatten and Bryant Simmons files (6532, 6425, and 6480), Confederate Pen-
sion Applications, Tennessee.

91860 Census, Tenn., Van Buren, 59; T. H. Smith to Unknown, [1861], Andrew
Johnson Papers, Library of Congress; T. H. Smith file, Citizens Papers; A. C.
Slatten file, Pension Application.

103. H. Snodgrass to Samuel D. Morgan, April 27, 1861, Morgan Papers, Tennes-
see Archives; Clement A. Evans, ed., Confederate Military History (12 vols., At-
lanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899), VIII, 723; Nashville Republican
Banner, July 19, 1861.

+iMilitary and Financial Board . . . Addition, page 269; Biographical Directory
of the American Congress (United States: Government Printing Office, 1961), 5025
Marion 0. Smith, "The Sauta Cave Confederate Niter Works,'' Civil War History, XXIX
(December, 1983), 297n; Graf and Haskins, Papers of Andrew Johnson, VI, 501n.

i2Smith, "The Sauta Cave Confederate Niter Works," 296; Lois Barnes Binkley,
The Deserted Sycamore Village of Cheatham County (n. p., 1980), 22-26, 29; George
W. Rains and William S. Whiteman files, Citizens Papers; Leighton Ewell, History
of Coffee County (Manchester, Tenn.: Doak Printing Company, 1936), 35.

15Frederick Wright file, Citizens Papers; List of names copied from the walls
of Big Bone Cave, December 11, 1982 (in possession of M. O. Smith); 1860 Census,
Tenn., Davidson, 2d Ward City of Nashville, 35; J. H. Whiteman file, Compiled
Service Records, Record Group 109, National Archives.

l4smith, "Confederate Saltpetre Mining Northern Alabama," 75-76; 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.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901),
Ser. 4, I, 1054-55. ,

15xKnoxville Daily Register, August 5, 1862; Atlanta Southern Confederacy, May
2, 1862; Fayetteville Observer, June 18, 1863; Fred H. Smith, William Gabbett,
Bolling A. Stovall, and Thomas J. Finnie files, Compiled Service Records of Con-
federate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations Raised Directly by the Confederate
Government . . . Nitre and Mining Bureau, Record Group 109, National Archives.

lop, 4H. Temple, Thomas J. Finnie, William Gabbett, and B. A. Stovall files,
ibid.; W. L. Ragsdale and Samuel L. Colville files, Citizens Papers; 1860 Census,

Fulton, Atlanta City Ward No. 5, p. 178; Acklen, Tennessee Records, I, 148.

17 /Numerous files, Citizens Papers; Southern Historical Society Papers, V ay thurs
(1878), 288-91; (1860. Census, Tenn., White, 6th District, Cassville P. 0., 124; aoa
Warren, 70, 1803" Bledsoe, Pikeville P. 0., 42; DeKalb, 14th District, Sligo’ BO,
194; (1870), rece. lst District, exclusive a McMinnville, 2; (1850), Bledsoe,
Eastern District, 745; Byron and Barbara Sistler, transcribers, 1850 Census, Ten-
nessee (8 vols., Evanston, I1l., 1974-76), V, 130; WPA. Van Buren County, Tennes-
see Tombstone Inscriptions (July 25, 1936), p. 7; Robert M. McBride and Dan M.
Robison, Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly (2 vols., Nash-
ville: Tennessee State Library and Archives, 1975, 1979), I, 365-66; John T.
McGill, "James M. Safford," Transactions of the Tennessee Academy of Science, II
(January 1, 1914-May 5, 1917), 48-54; Military and Financial Board .. . Addition,
page 141; John Slatten pension application; Arthur Weir Crouch, The Caney Fork
of the Cumberland (Nashville, March, 1973), 48.

181850 Census, Tenn., Grundy, 8th District, 730: (1360), Marion, 12th District,
Tracy City P. 0., 126; Cleveland Payne file, Citizens Papers; William Harrison
Lusk file, Civil War Questionnaires, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.

ee Rogers, Memorable Historical Accounts of White County and Area (College-

dale, Tenn.: Printed by the College Press, 1972), 62-63; 1860 Census, Tenn., Van
Buren, 32; Tennessee Cave Survey.

4

20zarr, Caves of Tennessee, passim; Tennessee Cave Survey; Personal communi-

cations with Gerald Moni, Jeff Sims, John L. Smyre, and Joel Buckner; Carthage
Gazette, April 1, 1812.