by Dale Cox

Note: The following is excerpted from The History of Jackson County, Florida: The War Between the States.

Caves were a source of niter, a key component of gunpowder, during the War Between the States or Civil War. Confederates explored caves like this one in Jackson County to see if they could be mined for raw materials for powder production.

Like most Floridians, the residents of Jackson County showed little initial interest in the blockade of the state’s coastline by the Union navy. Many did not think a total blockade even possible and few expected the war to last longer than a year or two. By the middle of 1862, however, it was apparent that the blockade would prove to be a factor not just for the South’s residents, but for its armies as well. Plagued with limited manufacturing capabilities when the war began, the Confederacy depended heavily on arms, ammunition, and gunpowder brought in from abroad. As the blockade tightened, these avenues of supply were constricted.


In hopes of breaking the blockade and opening key ports, the Confederate Navy pushed forward projects such as the CSS Chattahoochee. Quickly recognizing that they simply did not have the means to challenge the U.S. Navy for supremacy of the waves, however, Southern leaders also embarked on an ambitious program of industrialization. Peacetime mills, foundries, and manufacturing facilities were converted and expanded to provide war material for the Southern military. Major industrial centers grew in Columbus and Augusta, Georgia; Selma and Mobile, Alabama; Richmond, Virginia, and in other key locations across the Confederate States.

It is difficult to imagine today, but the paddlewheel steamboat Jackson carried cargoes of cotton and other commodities down the Chipola River from Marianna throughout the war.

In many ways, this effort to wage war by the South foreshadowed future methods of manufacturing and supply. A converted riverboat facility in Columbus, for example, provided engines for warship construction projects throughout the Confederacy, while heavy cannon for those same vessels came from ordnance complexes in Richmond and Selma. Ironworks in Alabama and Georgia, in turn, provided the raw material used for making the guns and powder works in cities such as Augusta turned out gunpowder for both cannon and small arms.

Even Jackson County, far from the booming industrial cities of the Confederacy, contributed to this effort. Cotton from the county’s plantations and farms went up the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers to thread and textile mills where it was converted into uniforms, tents, and bandages. Tanneries like the one at Oak Hill west of present-day Alford produced boots in large numbers for the military and other shops, large and small, manufactured everything from barrels and kegs to wagon wheels and horseshoes. The county’s forests provided heavy timbers, milled lumber and even enormous pine masts for naval construction. Beef, pork, and grain from Jackson County supported Southern armies in the field as far away as Virginia, but primarily in Tennessee and Georgia.

Gunpowder, however, was the key to continued resistance to the gathering armies of the North. While an army might move on its stomach, without powder for its muskets and cannons, it could not fight. A key ingredient of gunpowder was potassium nitrate, more commonly known during the 19th center as saltpeter.

Jackson County's caves proved too wet for use in mining for saltpeter (potassium nitrate).

While there were several ways to collect or manufacture potassium nitrate, perhaps the easiest was to collect it from caves. In its mineral form, it was known as nitre (usually spelled niter today) and was commonly found in clear to whitish encrustations on the walls and ceilings of dry caves. It was formed by nitrates and alkali potassium leaching through the ground. Saltpeter could also be produced from the bat guano that accumulated on the floors of caves.

In an effort to find nitre for powder works such as the massive facility at Augusta, Georgia, the Confederate Nitre Bureau was established and Professor Nathan Pratt of Oglethorpe University was named Superintendent of Nitre for the District of Florida. A noted scientist of his day, Pratt was assigned the formidable task of developing sources for large quantities of nitre. Because the mineral was being successfully extracted from caves elsewhere in the South, his attention quickly turned to caverns that honeycomb much of Florida. Jackson County, of course, is home to hundreds of caves of various sizes.

While most of the many caves in the county were too small to be of much value for industrially producing nitre, it was hoped that several of the larger ones might hold potential. The Natural Bridge or Old Indian Cave at today's Florida Caverns State Park and the Arch Cave three miles northwest of Marianna were the best known of these. The massive tour cave at the state park was not discovered until the 20th century.

To investigate the potential of the caves in Jackson County and elsewhere in Florida, Pratt traveled across much of Florida between May 28 and June 27, 1862. His investigations concentrated on caves near Marianna and Gainesville, as well as on other sources for producing saltpeter in Florida.

Professor Pratt arrived in Marianna on June 8, 1862. After conferring with local military and civic leaders, he hired a buggy and rode north from town on Carter’s Mill Road to inspect the Natural Bridge Cave. He was disappointed with what he found:

…(T)he caves are all small, the largest not over 400 yards long and from 10 to 20 feet wide, with few lateral expansions or apartments. The floors are generally rocky. Earthy floors when found of large extent, generally shallow; these are kept wet by water rushing in at the mouth or by excessive dripping from the porous ceiling above, so that nitre either is not formed or if formed is subject to constant lixiviation. Deficiency of earth or excessive wetness will describe all the caves of Florida that I examined and I consider these a sample of all as they occur in the same “rottru” porous, white limestone, of the Meiocine Tertiarry.

Nitre was a key ingredient needed to manufacture black powder, which was used in muskets of the Civil War era.

In short, the caves of Jackson County were too wet to be of much use for extracting nitre. While the results of his examinations were discouraging, Pratt did not completely rule out the possibility that small quantities of nitre could be mined in Florida. He found one cave near Gainesville that he thought might produce as much as 1,000 pounds, enough to make a considerable quantity of gunpowder, and he thought it might be worthwhile to at least make the attempt elsewhere. While he did not expect quantities produced to be sufficient to justify the construction of Confederate government mines, he did recommend that private owners open works in the caves to see what results they could achieve.

Such efforts were apparently undertaken in Jackson County. Either during his visit or shortly thereafter, Pratt named Dr. Thaddeus Hentz of Marianna as Assistant Superintendent for West Florida and placed him under the supervision of Charles H. Latrobe of Tallahassee. The brother of Dr. Charles Hentz, who practiced medicine in the county before the war, Thaddeus Hentz was a dentist and a private in Captain Robert Gamble’s Leon Light Artillery Company. He was detached from his normal military duties so he could work in Jackson County for the Nitre Bureau. Latrobe, a native of Baltimore, was the chief engineer of the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad and also a member of Gamble’s company.

The two evidently supervised at least limited attempts to mine nitre in the caves of Jackson County, most likely from the primary one at Natural Bridge. Surviving records show that Hentz approved payment to John L. McFarlin, an Apalachicola grocer, who had hired two wagon and mule teams for 25 days each to haul dirt for the Nitre Bureau in Jackson and Gadsden Counties. Some of this earth was mined from the floors of Jackson County caves, but some also came from beneath tobacco barns, stables and other plantation buildings.

The experiment, however, was short-lived and by mid-1863 significant Nitre Bureau operations in Jackson County had come to an end. Professor Pratt’s assessment of the productivity of the caves proved accurate and the county did not become a major source of potassium nitrate for the Confederate war effort.

(End of Excerpt)

The Jackson County cave experiments ended well before the Battle of Marianna, which took place on September 27, 1864. Learn more about the battle by clicking the play button to enjoy a free mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

Stunning formations at Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna, Florida.

The caves of the Marianna area and Florida Caverns State Park were places of mystery, legend and sometimes even hiding for our ancestors.

Creek and Seminole families hid in caves during the First Seminole War. They were the first stop on the Underground Railroad for African-Americans escaping slavery. Women, children and the elderly used them as hiding places during the Battle of Marianna. Outlaws frequented out of the way caverns during reconstruction and moonshiners made use of more than one during Prohibition!

In one case - if the media is to be believed - a man even stayed inside one for 37 years!

The story appeared in a New York newspaper in 1887 and was picked up by other papers across the nation:

...A few days ago there appeared upon the register of the Fifth Avenue hotel the name of a gentleman from Marianna, Fla. He was a good talker, and told a most extraordinary tale of an occurrence that took place in the neighborhood of his home town. It is believed by everybody in that section of the state, "and," said the narrator, "I am not prepared to say it is not true, as more than half the people in that town saw the hero of the story." - (New York Graphic, 1888).

Billy Bailey of Florida Caverns State Park explores the narrow passages of Old Indian Cave.

The incident originated from a large cavern 2 miles from Marianna. Tradition identifies this as the Natural Bridge or "Old Indian" Cave at today's Florida Caverns State Park. That cave, however, does not have a spring or karst window inside as the story relates:

...On April 1, 1884, a party of explorers consisting of two gentlemen and five ladies, visited the cave. They followed the path that led to a point known as "The Spring," where a bold stream of cold clear water gushed forth from the rock, and flowed in a rivulet for some fifty feet and disappeared under a mass of detached fragments of limestone. - (New York Graphic, 1888).

It may or may not be significant that the date of this expedition was given as April Fool's Day.

The South America Pool during a time of low water. The rim of the pool approximates the shape of South America.

There are a number of caves immediately around Marianna that match the description given in the article. The "South America Pool" in the tour cave at Florida Caverns State Park forms a rivulet of clear water at times and the Ladies' Cave west of the park has a strong-flowing stream of water. Both are within 2 miles of Marianna.

It was after the party of explorers reached "the Spring" that the story got really interesting:

...[O]ne of the gentlemen of the party, with his cane, detached a jutting rock particularly brilliant with mica spangles from what seemed the solid wall of rock. A large mass of loosened rock followed the fragments with a crash which reverberated hundreds of times throughout the cavernous depths. Then it was an astonishing sight met the eyes of the party which at first rendered them motionless with horror and fright. A hitherto unknown chamber was seen through the aperture, and but a few feet away, apparently motionless as the stone floor on which it lay, was the body of a man clad in the habiliments of a soldier, with his musket beside him. - (New York Graphic 1888).

Kelly Banta of Florida Caverns State Park guides a tour through an enchanted forest of columns and formations.

It took a few minutes for the explorers to recover their senses enough to move closer. The man did not appear to be breathing but neither did he show signs of being dead. The two male explorers tried to lift the body which caused its rotten clothing and equipment to fall away. They wrapped it in a waterproof coat and carried it to the banks of the underground spring. The ladies of the party made their way out to daylight and headed to Marianna in their carriage to alert the citizens.

The two gentlemen explorers located two other men nearby and with them reentered the cave:

...They went directly to the spring. To their astonishment they found that the man supposed to be dead was living with half open eyes, breathing stertorously, while a faint color tinged his cheek. Examination disclosed rapid but distinct pulsation. The horrified men carried the phenomenon to the open air outside the cave as quickly as the burden would allow. -  (New York Graphic, 1888).

The men succeeded in getting the "phenomenon" to take a few sips of brandy and then took him to a nearby cabin. They left him there and started for town but quickly ran into a group of some 50 townspeople on its way to the cave. The crowd went to the cabin and the mysterious stranger was examined by several of Marianna's doctors.

The tour cave at Florida Caverns State Park offers visitors an incredible array of formations and colors.

They gave him stimulants and he soon recovered enough to talk but due to his weakness the physicians would not allow him to be asked questions until the following day. He then told the following story:

...He said that in 1837 he was sent from Pensacola to Fort Dade with important military papers. When near Marianna he was followed by a band of Choctaws, who had gone on the warpath in sympathy with their Seminole brethren.
   Being hard pressed, he abandoned his horse and finding a hole in the ground he squeezed into it, and fearing the Indians would discover his trail, went some distance into the cave, when he suddenly felt a difficulty in respiration, a feeling of drowsiness came over him, and he remembered no further. - New York Graphic, 1888).

The story is definitely bizarre but it includes some little known true facts. Probably the most significant is that there was a handful of Choctaw warriors with a group of Creek Indians that fled into the Florida Panhandle following the Battle of Hobdy's Bridge, Alabama, in February 1837. This fact is so obscure that many modern researchers of the Seminole War are not aware of it.

The Cathedral formation at Florida Caverns State Park. Did a Seminole War soldier really spend 37 years in such a cave?

Also of significance is the mention of Fort Dade, a Seminole War log fort that should not be confused with a later Fort Dade that is open to the public on Mullet Key near St. Petersburg. The original Fort Dade was built in 1837 where the historic Fort King Road crossed the Withlacoochee River near today's community of Lacoochee, Florida.

The New York newspaper's account of this Florida "Rip Van Winkle" concludes:

...It was hard to make the soldier believe that thirty-seven years had passed while he lay in coma, and that the fields of rice, sugar cane and cotton which dotted the landscape were the same wilderness through which he had been chased by the Indians. He seemed to be of a retiring disposition, and did not care to pose as an object of curiosity, and when his strength fully returned disappeared, and was never afterwards heard of. - (New York Graphic, 1888).

Could a Seminole War soldier really have slept for 37 years in a Marianna cave? The writer of the story's original headline probably summed it up best: "A story that the guileless people of Florida unhesitatingly believe."

Dale Cox
May 4, 2017

P.S. To hear the version of this legend as told today and to journey into Old Indian Cave at Florida Caverns State Park, please click play on this video:

         

Andrew Jackson as he appeared late in life. (Matthew Brady photo, Courtesy Library of Congress)

Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, would have turned 250 years old today. In the Florida county that bears his name, however, the anniversary will pass quietly.

Jackson County has no events planned to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Jackson's birth.

The only part of Florida to touch two other states - Alabama and Georgia - Jackson County was established just three years after Old Hickory made his only visit to the area. He came through in 1818 during the closing phase of the First Seminole War.

Florida was still a Spanish colony in 1818, but the borderlands had been the scene of open warfare since U.S. troops attacked the Creek Indian village of Fowltown in Decatur County, Georgia. The Battle of Fowltown was really two separate events that took place on November 21 and 23, 1817. The action was the first battle of the Seminole Wars.

Creek, Seminole and maroon (Black Seminole) warriors retaliated on November 30, 1817, by attacking a U.S. Army supply boat on the Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee, Florida. The first U.S. defeat of the Seminole Wars, the action is remembered today as the Scott Massacre of 1817 and ended with the deaths of around 34 men, 6 women and 4 children.

Outraged over the Scott attack but unconcerned over the U.S. raids on Fowltown, President James Monroe had Secretary of War John C. Calhoun order Major General Andrew Jackson to the frontier. Jackson was authorized to invade Spanish Florida to "punish" those responsible for the attack on Lt. Richard W. Scott's command.

The site of Fort Scott as it appears today.

The commander of all U.S. troops in the South, Jackson was at the zenith of his military career in 1818. He had defeated Red Stick Creek forces at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814-1815. He reached Fort Scott at today's Lake Seminole on the evening of March 9, 1818, and assumed command of the troops there on the next morning.

The first phase of Jackson's Florida campaign saw him march into Spanish Florida and battle the Native American alliance at the Battles of Miccosukee, Econfina and Old Town while also capturing the Spanish fort of San Marcos de Apalache. He executed the Creek Indian leaders Josiah Francis and Homathlemico while also capturing and ordering the executions of two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister.

The general was at Fort Gadsden, the fort he had built on the site of the earlier "Negro Fort" or Fort at Prospect Bluff, when he decided to march into West Florida. Reports had reached him that Creek refugees were being fed and supplied by the Spanish at Pensacola.

Click here to see a great first person interpretation of Andrew Jackson by Billy Bailey of Florida Caverns State Park.

Jackson left Fort Gadsden with an army of 1,092 men and two cannon and marched back up the Apalachicola River to what is now Torreya State Park. Boats had been prepositioned there by soldiers from Fort Scott and the general crossed his army over to Ocheesee Bluff in today's Calhoun County on May 9, 1818. The crossing of so many men was dangerous and took all day to complete.

The next morning, guided by the Creek chief John Blunt for whom present-day Blountstown is named, the army turned northwest and entered the county that now bears his name. The following is excerpted from my book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years:

Jackson Blue Spring, where Gen. Jackson's army camped on May 10, 1818 while marching through West Florida.

The army turned to the northwest on the morning of May 10th and crossed into Jackson County. Their route led them across the approximate site of Grand Ridge to Blue Spring where they camped for the night. Captain Hugh Young, Jackson’s topographer, called the spot “Big Spring,” a name that it held for a number of years. He described it as being “forty yards in diameter and of considerable depth with a rock bottom and a clean rapid current.” 

The soldiers in Jackson’s army marveled at the beauty and richness of the surrounding countryside. Young himself kept careful records of the quality of the lands through which they marched. 

The army continued forward on the morning of May 11, 1818. Crossing the hills between Blue Spring and the Chipola River, they reached the Natural Bridge of the Chipola River in today's Florida Caverns State Park by noon. It was here that a supposed incident involving Andrew Jackson took place. 

The Natural Bridge of the Chipola River is seen at left. The sink into which the river descends to begin its underground journey is at the center of the photo.

According to the oft-recited legend, Jackson’s army was moving forward in two columns. One column, led by the general himself and guided by John Blunt, crossed the river at the natural bridge. The second column, maching more to the north, was forced to halt and build rafts so the men and artillery could get across the river. Jackson’s column reached the planned rendezvous point west of the river and the general, known for his temper, supposedly became irate when the second column failed to appear on schedule.

When the bedraggled men of the flanking column finally trudged into camp, legend holds that Jackson berated their officers, demanding to know the reason for the delay. His temper soared even higher when they explained the reason for their lateness. The general had seen no river. The legend holds that it was not until John Blunt explained the phenomenon of the natural bridge that Old Hickory could be placated.

It is a fascinating little story and one of the few about Andrew Jackson that survive in the county today. Mrs. Janie Smith Rhyne, a Jackson County writer and historian of the 20th century, even memorialized the event in poem:

Looking up to the entrance of Alamo Cave

Alamo Cave, now part of Hinson Conservation & Recreation Area in Marianna, is #68 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

Please click here to see the entire list as it is unveiled.

When most people think of publicly accessible caves in Jackson County, they rightfully think of Florida Caverns State Park. The development of Hinson Conservation & Recreation area, however, has created another great opportunity to see a beautiful Jackson County cave that is preserved in its natural state.

Entrance to Alamo Cave

Accessible by way of the nature trails that lead north along the Chipola River from the parking area, the cave is large and airy.  Two main entrances provide good lighting for explorers, but flashlights are recommended.

Alamo Cave takes its name from a nearby archaeological site that produced numerous points and other artifacts in the years when the land was still in private hands.  The mass of arrowheads and points found in the field near the cave created a legend that a group of prehistoric American Indians had found themselves trapped in there by their enemies, Alamo style.

Inside Alamo Cave

In reality, the adjacent site is a large Archaic settlement and manufacturing site that dates back to before the time of Christ. Prehistoric people made tools, points and other artifacts there.  Archaeologists from the University of West Florida explored and documented the site this summer, with special permission from the state and City of Marianna.

The archaeological team also found evidence of a small Weeden Island settlement or campsite near the cave. This second site dated back perhaps 1,500 years and was from the Woodland era when prehistoric people made pottery, pursued organized religion and became very aware of astronomy and the movement of the sun and stars.

Chipola River near Alamo Cave

The archaeological sites are protected by law and digging is prohibited!  Please help preserve them for future generations.  Interpretive signs to help visitors learn more are under discussion.

The rear entrance of Alamo Cave opens onto a high bluff overlooking the Chipola River.  The scenery is spectacular and below is a second cave system, the Ovens, which is accessible only by water. The nature trail leads up across the bluff and down to tiny but beautiful Lily Spring on the other side. Click here to learn more about Lily Spring.

Lily Spring at Hinson Conservation & Recreation Area

To see Alamo Cave and some of the most spectacular views anywhere along the Chipola River, stop by Hinson Park & Recreation Area.  The entrance is located on State Highway 73 on the south side of Marianna. From the courthouse, travel south past WTYS Radio and start looking for the sign on your left. If you are using GPS, enter Gator Hole Lane, Marianna, Florida.

The park is open daily and is under the management of the City of Marianna. Among its beautiful features is Alamo Cave, which ranks as #68 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.