More history

More history from the signs at our Allegany store:

Salt played an important role in the US Civil War. By 1863 the Union had captured or cut off the Confederate deposits around the Chesapeake and Louisiana, and destroyed salt works in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. For the Union, their main salt production came from Syracuse and Michigan.
The People's Chronology, James Trager, p. 494


Ironically, this summer I biked through Saltville VA as part of a 118 mile ride from Abingdon. Anyways, Saltville was a key salt producer for teh Confederacy. In fact, from the Saltvilleva.com website:

"By November of 1862, because of territorial loss and the naval blockade, the Saltville Valley was the only significant source of salt within the bounds of the Confederacy. Before the age of refrigeration, salt was one of the absolute necessities of life. Smoking and salting was the only method known to preserve meats of any kind, and thus "Saltville had a large responsibility of feeding the Gray armies in the field.""

Not surprisingly, the North made Saltville a target and the small, but important town was the site of two battles during the US Civil War. The first as in October of 1864 and was a Confederate victory. The second was a Union victory and occurred a week before Christmas in December of 1864.