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Salt as a Factor in the Confederacy by Ella Lonn
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Salt as a Factor in the Confederacy
Ella Lonn
First reprint edition, first printing 1965
University of Alabama Press
Southern Historical Publications, No. 4
re-issue of 1933 edition
Not only was salt a necessary ingredient in the soldier's diet, amounting to one and a half pounds per month, it was the only preservative for food and animal hides before they were tanned. It was also important in the diet of horses and cattle and was used as a fertilizing agency. At the onset of the Civil War the United States, although rich in salines, imported 12,000,000 bushels annually and "a striking proportion of this amount went into the southern states." When the northern blockade cut off the South's supply from England and the West Indies the region was in serious trouble.
Necessity finally forced the individual Confederate states to begin manufacturing salt, which, along with the production of arms and clothing, constituted about the only manufacturing embarked upon by the Confederacy. The salt industry was remarkable in that it had to start from the ground up and under the most adverse conditions -- the salt works were under constant attack by Union forces, and consequently they were frequently destroyed and had to be rebuilt.
The lack of salt was only one of the South's problems. But it vividly points out the entire region's lack of industrial, development and dependence on outside sources for basic needs Energy, men and materials had to be expended in an effort to produce salt and protect the works from attack, and thus the Confederate armies were weakened on the battlefields. The author does not contend that with adequate supplies of salt the South could have won the war. But she does produce convincing evidence that its scarcity contributed significantly towards defeat.
Green cloth hardcover with gilt spine lettering, in dust jacket. 124 pages, octavo, graphic map endpapers, includes bibliography and index. Book is very good to near fine, clean, unmarked, square and tight. Dust jacket is good to very good, shows some mild edge wear and a crease on the mid-spine, not in archival Brodart over wrap.
