Roger Brothers
Re: Caves in AL used in Civil War
Sat Jun 9 15:54:34 2001


Elaine,

First of all someone on this forum should be able to do a lookup for you for both these individuals (Alan Pitts?) If they can't be found among the regular military rosters there may be another possibility.

I know that several caves in Ala (including Desoto Caverns near Childersburg and Cathedral Caverns near Grant) were used as sources of bat guano by the Confederate government. Water was leached through the guano and then dried to extract the "nitre" (potassium nitrate) which is one of the ingredients of black powder. Some men were detailed to work in these caves. Hope this at least gives you some ideas for further research.