Campbell's Choice | Big Stone Gap Publishing

link between the east and west of the Confederacy. At that point, Saltville became very critical.

At the beginning of the war Saltville had only one salt furnace with 70 kettles. In 1864 there were 38 furnaces with 2,600 kettles. Salt was being produced faster than the railroad could carry it off. 37 counties and several states together ran 50 furnaces at Saltville. In addition, one could see a thousand salt wagons lined up at one time. At the height of its significance, Saltville was supplying 80% of the Confederacy’s salt.

Civil War Era
"Lower Salt Works"

Palmer and Stuart geared up production at Saltville. The company was called “Stuart and Company”, with Stuart being its public face, and Palmer acting as the more active internal manager. In 1864 they made 4,000,000 bushels of salt. Not only was their company making as much salt as it could, but individual Southern states set up their own salt making facilities on the grounds of the company at Saltville. Approximately 2,000 slaves were employed in making salt.

Allocation and rationing of salt rapidly became a contentious reality. The fact of life was that there were three kinds of money in use in the region during the war years. There was Confederate paper money, which steadily lost value as the war progressed, as well as gold, and Federal “Greenback” paper money.

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CAMPBELL'S CHOICE	Page
INTRODUCTION	1
SALTVILLE GEOLOGY	1
SALTVILLE INDIANS	4
LEGAL MECHANISMS OF LAND TITLE OWNERSHIP IN VA.	6
THE SETTLEMENT OF SALTVILLE	13
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AROUND SALTVILLE BETWEEN THE PIONEER PERIOD AND THE CIVIL WAR	27
SALTVILLE IN THE CIVIL WAR	31
AFTER THE WAR	47
A MODERN CHEMICAL FACTORY	52
EPILOGUE	57
BIBLIOGRAPHY	61
INDEX	66

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