Salpetre miners of Renfro Cave, Tennessee

WRG eS oO BheN

SALTPETRE MINERS OF RENFRO CAVE, TENNESSEE
By Marion O. Smith

A couple years ago Bob Whittemore of Johnson City reported Carter
County's Renfro Cave to the Tennessee Cave Survey, and during late 1981
he and other members of the Holston Valley Grotto surveyed it. Bob
indicated that this cave had been "extensively mined for saltpetre"” and
noted that they had found on the walls two names, "Samuel Shell" and
“William H. Mottern," and the initials "GCG. W. L.," all associated with
the date 1862.

On October 10, 1982, Gerald Moni, Merilyn Osterlund, and I visited
the cave to record saltpetre mining evidence and to check for additional
names. Although the cave has a mapped length of some 2,500 feet, a per-
son never gets over 200 feet from one of its three entrances. It is a
dry maze cave with numerous stone pinnacles and several small "rooms."

The cave was definitely mined for saltpetre. Smudge marks, piled as
well as scattered rocks, pick marks, and what may have been tally marks
were observed. Some areas appeared to have had large amounts of earth
removed, which wae tprcuibis leached outside, evidenced by two slight
twenty-five foot long mounds, a short distance below the east entrances.

Besides the names Whittemore found, which were definitely the most
legible, we recorded the following:

(a J J(?) Reeve 1862 W D 1860

F M Slomdley Lyon 1842

D S Renfro July 4 19 1 George W Little August _, 1862

Samuel P(T?) Doler 1862 M J(?) Brown

MP Mottern g(?) K Shay (g,w?)
A C Woley 1859

Follow-up research of the Civil War era names yielded information

about three men:

Samuel Shell (July 17, 1840-June 10, 1913), native
Tennessee farmer, joined Company B, 4th Tennessee Infantry,
USA, November 11, 1862, as a private. Promoted to sergeant
March 11, 1863, he was reduced to the ranks October 8, 1864,

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after "deserting" for a month, and eventually mustered out
at Nashville August 2, 1865. Earlier, on October 3, 1863,
he had been captured and paroled at McMinnville. After the
war he married Jane E. and fathered at least eight
children between 1868 and 1890.

George W. Little (January 22, 1842-August 3, 1900) like
his father Henry (May 30, 1806-February 8, 1882) was a
Tennessee native. He joined Company H, 13th Tennessee
Cavalry, USA, September 24, 1863, and was mustered in as
corporal October 28, 1863, at Strawberry Plains. After
After promotion to commissary sergeant February 27, 1864,
and to first sergeant, June 22, 1865, he-was mustered out.
at Knoxville September 5, 1865. Subsequently he married
Charlotte A. » Sired at least four children, and
lived mostly by farming, although in 1880 he was working
at a sawmill.

William H. Mottern may have been the Tennessee~born
son of George Mottern. (c1813-£11880) who was listed in
the census as William Mottern (c1843-f£11880), and who
made his living after the war by farming.

At the outbreak of the war virtually all of East Tennessee was pre-
dominately unionist in sentiment. This feeling was especially strong
in Carter and Johnson counties. During November, 1g6l, many citizens
of that area participated in burning the East Tennessee and Virginia
Railroad bridge at Zollicoffer [now Bluff City] in Sullivan County,
and for a time openly defied the Confederate authorities. This was
sometimes known as the "Little Rebellion against the Big Rebellion."

But regular Confederate troops dispersed the poorly organized citizens,

leaving them the choice of either tacitly supporting the Southern rule

or slipping over the mountains to Kentucky where they could agtat. Union
regiment.

After the Confederate Conscript Act of April, 1862, went into effect,
all able-bodied males between ages eighteen and thirty-five [these limits
were later extended] were sought for military duty, except various
laborers and artisans "engaged in the production of articles necessary
for the army." Consequently, to avoid active service, a number of Carter

countians found employment in various iron works while a few others

apparently contracted to supply saltpetre to the Confederate ordnance

department.

An area of Carter County north of Elizabethton, composed of parts

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of the old eighth and thirteenth civil districts, was known during the
nineteenth century as Turkeytown. One source indicated that "among the
prominent Union men" in this area were Samuel Shell and George Mottern.
Henry Little was also a resident but nothing was Said about his sympathies.

Extant vouchers from Captain Thomas J. Finnie, Confederate Nitre |
and Mining superintendent for upper East Tennessee, show that between ,
January 31 and June 27, 1863, George W. Little delivered 425 pounds of
saltpetre. Earlier, on November 27 the previous year, Henry aes
presumably George W.'s father, delivered 27 pounds. But, somewhat con-
fusing to the researcher, between May 30, 1863, and February 27, 1864,
mostly in mid-1863, Isaac H. Mottern and Company delivered to Captain
Finnie 428 pounds of saltpetre. Isaac H. (c1840-f£11880) was the son of
George and the brother of William, both of whom have already been identified.
The 1870 census shows that the George W. Little, Henry Little, and Isaac
H. Mottern families were all next door neighbors which suggests that
they could have had a business association during the war.

It is certain that George W. Little was in feueeo Cave, therefore it
can be assumed that the saltpetre he delivered was made there. Isaac H.
Mottern had an indirect connection to Renfro Cave if the William H.
Mottern who signed bie or a1] was really his brother. But it cannot
necessarily be assumed that the saltpetre he produced was made there.
It could have been made at another cave or even from the dirt underneath
old houses and barns. In May and June, 1863, both Little and Mottern

delivered saltpetre to Captain Finnie. If they worked the same cave they

probably did so for only a brief time, since by late September Little

had joined the Union army. Although it seems reasonable that Isaac H.
Mottern could have taken over the mining of Renfro Cave to keep his
exemption from the Confederate army, the facts may never be known.
REFERENCES
Tennessee Cave Survey: report on Renfro Cave by R. E, Whittemore.
Map (December, 1981) of Renfro Cave by Holston Valley Grotto [R. E. Whittemore].
Compiled Service Records, Record Group 94, National Archives.
1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 Carter County, Tennessee, censuses.
Samuel W. Scott and Samuel P. Angel, History of the Thirteenth Regiment

Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, U. S.-A. Philadelphia: P.: W. Ziegler
and Company, 1903, pages 47, 80-89, 97-98, 388-90. -

Orville T. Fields. Cemeteries of Carter County, Tennessee. Johnson City,
Tennessee, 1976, pages 123, 222. ,

Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, Record Group
109, National Archives [Microcopy 346, rolls 593, 721].