While none of the saltpeter works are in evidence there today, records attest to the large quantity of material processed from the cave before its destruction by the Union army. Mined for nitrates as early as 1804, Kingston was a privately owned site at the outbreak of the Civil War but was taken over by the Confederate Nitre Bureau in order to increase production. The cave was located far enough south of advancing Union forces in 1864 that, while other saltpeter operations farther north had been overtaken, Kingston survived until late May. The most prominent was Kingston Saltpeter Cave in Bartow County. Several caves in Georgia served as mines for saltpeter. The population in San Francisco in 1853 was around 40,000 as compared to 850 when gold was discovered in 1848 and 884,000 today. Wages were low, and often either enslaved laborers or conscripted soldiers were employed in the operation. There are reports that Spanish and other sailors landed on the island both to collect eggs and guano for use in saltpeter, in important ingredient in gunpowder. If a water source was not readily available, logs were hollowed out to provide piping for its transport. If the processing was done within the cave, all of this material was carried underground. They also felled many trees to provide wood for the hoppers and to fuel the fires used for boiling. Laboring for long hours in the cold and dark environment of a cave, dimly lit with torches that gave off noxious smoke, the workers often crawled into small passages to extract the earth. The work of the “peter monkeys,” as the miners were known, was an extremely tiring and dangerous task.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |