Originally aired on May 09, 1997 - In part 141 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson discusses the strategic importance of the town of Saltville, Virginia to the Confederate cause. By 1864, some 38 factories were providing almost 4 million barrels annually.
#141 – Salt
Saltville, Virginia, is not an easy place to find. Off the beaten path, tucked in the mountains of Smythe County, one has to want to go there to get there. And yet, for the Confederate States of America, the little town of Saltville acquired an importance far above and beyond its size.
Salt is one of those items we dismiss as matter-of-fact and insignificant – until it stops being available. Today, as every connoisseur of good food knows, salt is at its most delectable in the South in what we call "“country ham”. In the mid-19th Century, however, salt had a much more vital importance. It was the principal if not the sole means of preserving meat. Slat was also necessary in leather-making, in keeping livestock nutritiously supplied, and for packing such foodstuffs as cheese and eggs.
The Southern states had customarily imported 300 million pounds of salt annually from the North and Europe. With the advent of civil war, the Confederacy had to develop internal sources. Small production plants opened in Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, and along the Atlantic coast. By 1863 Union forces had occupied or neutralized most of those sites. A crisis was at hand.
Desperate attention then turned to the operations of Stuart, Buchanan and Company far in the southwestern tip of Virginia. The village of Saltville now became the major source for a substance imperative for getting meat to the armies. So strong was the Virginia brine at Saltville, government officials learned, that water from some of the wells would not dissolve the salt crystals. In fact, analysis at the time showed that salt to be 98-99% pure, with only hints of sulphate and iron. By 1864, some 38 factories with 2,600 kettles at Saltville were providing close to four million barrels of salt annually.
The Saltville operation was not easy. Steam engines tapped the salt springs and pumped the heavy brine through wooden pipes to furnaces. Once the water evaporated, workers placed the crystallized salt in split baskets to dry. The heavy mineral was then stored in bulk to await shipment by railroad to the major war zones.
Union authorities were quite aware of the strategic importance of the Saltville wells. If they could be destroyed, it would be crippling for the Southern war effort. In October, 1864, a large, mounted Union force swooped down on Saltville. A sharp fight occurred at the town. The Federal raiders suffered not only defeat but also the massacre of as many as 100 captured black soldiers.
Two months later, just before Christmas, another Federal attack resulted in the seizure and temporary shutdown of the Saltville wells. Yet when Lee’s army surrendered at Appomattox the following April, workers were still doing their jobs at Saltville.
How necessary salt was to the welfare of the wartime South can be seen in the escalating price of the commodity. The average cost of salt in January, 1861, was 80 cents a bushel. At year’s end, it was $3.75 a bushel. A year later, that eighty-cent bushel had become $30 dollars, and the price at least doubled every year thereafter.
Simple inflation would have been a national calamity but for the dedication and hard work of the people in Saltville. Thanks to them, the Confederacy managed to supply its salt needs, though not evenly and completely. As late as January, 1865, the Southern commissary-general boasted with a tinge of exaggeration that “the supply of salt has always been sufficient”. He then got to the truth by adding that “the Virginia works” at Saltville “were able to meet the demands of the army”.
No large monuments to the past are at Saltville today, but the ponds are still there and well worth a visit.