Where is Prater Cave?

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WHERE IS PRATER CAVE?
Marion O. Smith

Prater Cave was briefly mined for saltpeter by the Confederate Nitre Bureau. Its existence is
revealed through payrolls for April and May, 1864, and by a pay voucher dated June 9, 1864, at Blue
Mountain (now Anniston), Alabama. The employees were:

HJ. Mann Superintendent April and May Dune ae ee.
J. M. Anderson’ Foreman >? ‘April and May ee
J. W. Foster Mason »" April Piety an
John Ledbetter =~ = Mason “April lhe oe
C.C. Caldwell . — Laborer \?" April (12 days) oe de
H.BGodby ©’ _ Boiler '1° April (11 days) and May ela oe
H. B. Jones Laborer .S! April 0 re
_E. P. Minchew Laborer ‘ April (8 % days) © a ‘ah
OH. F. McBride Laborer “ April and May aed Sh ee
Reames Garou Ne: Slaves
Richmond Owned by C. C. Clay Laborer April and May
Baltimore Owned by C. C. Clay Laborer April and May
Jesse Owned by C. C. Clay Laborer April and May
Ben Owned by James H. Bibb Laborer April and May
Austin Owned by Benton Sanders Laborer April and May
Abe Owned by Benton Sanders Laborer April and May
Bose Owned by Ira Brown Laborer April and May
Harriet Owned by J. R Slaughter Cook April and May
Vincent Owned by J. Berry Laborer May
Jim Owned by J. Berry Laborer May’

Hints for the location of Prater Cave may be inferred from the laborers’ earlier or later

J. M.

assignments. Surviving payrolls provide information about two-thirds of the white workers.
Anderson (January, 1864); J. W. Foster (November, 1863; March, 1864); John Ledbetter (March, 1864,
sixteen days); C.C. Caldwell (December, 1863 — January, March, April two days); and H.B. Godby
(November, 1863 — January, March, April nineteen days) were employed at Blue Mountain Niter Works
(Lady-Weaver Cave), Calhoun County, Alabama, before being sent to Prater Cave. Earlier, November,
1863 — January, 1864, Ledbetter had been a laborer and mason at Little River Niter Works (Daniel Cave),
Cherokee County, Alabama, and February and half of March, 1864, at Big Spring Niter Works
(Guntersville Caverns), Marshall County, Alabama. During the winter and spring of 1864 Caldwell (four
and a half days in March) and Minchew, eight (February), thirteen (March), nine (April), and nine and a
half (May) days, worked at Cedar Mountain Niter Works (Horse Cave), Blount County, Alabama. After
their time at Prater Cave, Caldwell (June, 1864), Godby (June, 1864), and Minchew (May eight days,
June, 1864) were reassigned to Blue Mountain, and Mann (July, 1864, as assistant superintendent) and
Godby (July, 1864, as boiler) were shifted to Little Warrior Niter Works (Crumps and Second Caves),
Blount County.’

A number of the slaves, Abe, Austin, Richmond, Baltimore, Jesse, Harriet, Ben, and Bose, had
toiled at Sauta Cave in Jackson, Alabama, between February and July, 1863. Some were there SIX
months, others four, while Ben and Bose were employed sixteen days in July. After the Confederates
retreated across the Tennessee River the work stations for the Prater Cave blacks are partially known.

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Vincent and Jim were at Big Spring November, 1863 — January, 1864, while Jim was at Blue Mountain
February, 1864. The other eight slaves were at Blue Mountain from November or December, 1863,
through at least February or March, 1864. Harriet in December, 1863, was cook at Little River. Much
later, Baltimore was employed three days of February, 1865, at Cedar Mountain.”

The slave owners were Clement C. Clay, Jr., Confederate senator who had a plantation in western
Jackson County; John R. Slaughter, a Huntsville physician; Benton Sanders, an Athens, Alabama,
merchant; James H. Bibb, a Madison County resident who in 1863 was an overseer of slaves at Sauta
Cave; and Ira E. Brown and John Berry, farmers from near Paint Rock, Jackson County. These men no
doubt wanted to keep their chattels and benefit from their labor. Therefore, when the Union army
reoccupied northern Alabama during the summer of 1863, they were willing that their slaves be moved
further south to work at caves the confederacy still controlled.*

G.M Steele was a civilian who in February, March, and April, 1864, supplied bricks for the
construction of furnaces at Blue Mountain Niter Works and Prater Cave. Only April 5 and 11 he
respectively sold 2150 and 250 bricks specifically for the Prater furnace. It was “Steele who received
payment on June 9, 1864.”

Prater Cave was apparently mined by the Confederates only a short time and for some now
unknown reason abandoned. Otherwise, it is puzzling that twenty years of research have unearthed only
three documents pertaining to it. Where Prater Cave is and what currently known Alabama cave it
equates to is unknown, but a good guess is that it is in Calhoun County, although Blount and Marshall
Counties are other feasible counties. Who will answer the speleohistorical question?

SOURCES

Confederate Payrolls (Prater Cave), RG109, NA

Ibid., Cedar Mountain, Blue Mountain, Little River, Big Spring, Little Warrior.

Ibid., Sauta, Big Spring, Blue Mountain, Little River; John Riley Hopkins Papers, Georgia Department of

Archives and History, Atlanta.

4. 1860 Census, Ala., Madison, Huntsville, 47; Limestone, Div. No. 1, Athens, 75; Jackson, Dist. No. 3, p. 40; Dist.
No. 4, p.19; 1860 Slaves Census, Ala., Jackson, Dist. No. 4, pp. 1 and 5; Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens
of Business Firms, RG109 (M346, Roll 63), NA, James H. Bibb File; Confederate Payrolls, Sauta Cave.

5. Citizens Papers (M346, Roll 978), G.M. Steele File.

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