Florida was a major source of beef and other foodstuffs for the Confederacy. In times before refrigeration salt was the primary preservative for meats. All along the Southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts salt-making facilities were built to evaporate sea water leaving behind the salt. St. Andrew Bay on the Gulf, landlocked with radiating arms and an extensive shoreline was an ideal location for salt manufacture (see map below). The swamps adjacent to the bay were perhaps the best adapted for salt manufacturing in all of the Confederacy. A prolonged three-year drought in the area had already evaporated off most of the fresh water so that it was already about 75% salt.

The salt making facilities on St. Andrew Bay would remain undisturbed until September 11, 1862, when the USS Sagamore under Lieutenant-Commander Bigelow sent sailors ashore on the 11th and 12th to destroyed salt works. On November 14th Lieutenant-Commander Hart commanded an expedition aboard the USS Albatross leaving Pensacola for St. Andrew Bay. He was joined by the brig the U.S. Bohio under Acting Master George W. Browne and the USS Wanderer commanded by Acting Master E.S. Turner. Upon anchoring in St. Andrew Bay at night Hart was surprised by the number of salt manufacturing facilities lighting up the sky along the shore of the bay, bayous, creeks, and for a long distance inland. He would spend a week there sending parties ashore to the East, West and North Bays to destroy them. On November 24th a party of five boats, 60 marines and a working gang made several stops up the North Bay for a total of about 30 miles. In addition to destroying facilities there, they were told that there were 2,500 men employed in the immediate vicinity running the works. On November 26th they moved into the East Bay and destroyed over 30 facilities. Here they learned of a large settlement at California Inlet with over 1,000 facilities but time did not allow their destruction. An inventory of what they destroyed is shown below.

The Federals would return in December of 1863 when Acting Ensign Edwin Crissey with the stern-wheel steamer Bloomer and the sloop Caroline destroyed a large Government salt manufacturing complex on the West Bay consisting of 27 buildings, 22 large boilers, and 200 kettles averaging 200 gallons each. They also destroyed 2,000 bushels of salt and several storehouses of provisions. They then moved down the bay for seven miles wrecking 198 private salt works averaging 2 boilers and 2 kettles each. An additional 27 wagons, 5 flatboats, over 300 buildings, large quantities of salt and 507 hidden kettles were also destroyed. Forty eight slaves were also liberated. Acting Master Browne on the bark Restless shelled the town of St. Andrew, which Rebel companies protecting the works were using and in the process all 32 houses burned. On December 18th Browne’s crew eliminated another 90 salt making facilities, while the Confederates burned an additional 210 to prevent them from falling into Union hands. In ten days four officers and 52 men destroyed 290 works, 33 wagons, 12 flatboats, 2 sloops, 6 ox carts, 4000 bushels of salt, 268 buildings, 529 iron kettles and 105 iron boilers. They calculated that the Confederates wrecked about the same amount of property. Browne estimated the total damage at 6 million dollars and that about three quarters of all facilities in the bay had been destroyed.

The need for salt in the South was so great that incredibly within two months the Confederate government had provided the resources to rebuild the West Bay St. Andrew Bay Government facility. On February 17, 1864, Browne sent a 13 man force inland to attack the works in the rear and 10 men to launch a frontal assault. They destroyed 26 iron sheet boilers with a capacity on average of 881 gallons, nineteen salt kettles with a total capacity of 26,706 gallons. A second raid on the East Bay eliminated 15 government works containing 5 large steamboat boilers, 23 kettles, 16 log houses, 1 flatboat, a large amount of salt, vats and tanks. Browne returned to the East Bay twice in April on 2nd and 22nd and destroyed 2 Government works and 300 bushels of salt on the 2nd and the one remaining work on the 22nd. On June 8th Acting Ensign Rankin destroyed 97 salt works on the West Bay. A two-day Union expedition on October 5th and 6th commanded by Acting Ensign Henry Eason, USS Restless, decimated large salt works on St Andrew Bay, along with 150 ancillary buildings. The last expedition to St. Andrew Bay on February 23, 1865, targeted the West Bay where kettles with a capacity of 13,615 gallons were broken.

Sites along St. Andrew Bay in Panama City, Florida.

Records from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies tell a different story than the sign above (Volume 17, pages 386-390). Acting Master Folger was sent up the bay with a crew of 11 on a reconnaissance mission when he exceeded his orders and made the decision to land a party from the boat. Two Union sailors were killed, three mortally wounded, and three wounded when they were ambushed by a party of Confederate guerrillas. The assertion that the men requested quarter to retrieve their dead and wounded and then fled was denied. Acting Master Folger never got to tell his side of the story before he died of his wounds. An inquiry into the affair was canceled when Folger died.

Pictures of the Bay from the Bay Dune Walkover Platform- 30.1657360, -85.7012467

Sources

Salt as a Factor in the Confederacy by Ella Lonn

The Extent and Importance of Federal Naval Raids on Salt-Making in Florida, 1862-1865 by Ella Lonn. The Florida Historical Society Quarterly Volume 10, pages 167-184, 1932.

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies (multiple locations). Series 1 Volume 17 page 311, pages 373-379, pages 593-601, pages 646-648, pages 676-678, page 683, pages 707-708, page 719, pages 811-812.