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#724 - Harper's new monthly magazine V.33 1866. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

This description of the destruction of the West Bay Salt Works was written by John S.C. Abbott in a 1866 Harper's Magazine:

 The achievements of our blockading squadron have never been suitably commemorated. And yet they performed many of the most arduous and daring exploits of the war, and contributed far more than is generally supposed to the glorious final result. It was one great object of the National Government to render it as difficult as possible for the rebels to feed their armies. Vast herds of cattle roamed over the prairies of Florida. These were killed, packed in salt, and sent in great abundance, by the internal railroads, to the several encampments. There were innumerable bays and inlets penetrating the Gulf coast of Florida, along whose silent and secluded shores salt-works were reared. The destruction of these works cut off those supplies of meat which were essential to the existence of an army. 

 About one hundred miles east of Pensacola there was an immense body of water jutting in from the Gulf, called St. Andrews Bay. The shores of this inland sea spread out through uncounted leagues in every conceivable irregularity of outline. Here there was a gloomy forest and there a frowning bluff. At one point the open prairie spread far away until it was lost in the distant horizon, and again the encroaching hillocks, crowned with dark evergreens and hoary, moss-draped oaks, obstructed the view. From time immemorial the wigwam of the Indian had dotted these shores, and his fragile canoe had glanced over these waves. The Indian had now disappeared. The country generally retained its pristine wildness, and naught but the cry of the waterfowl was heard to disturb the silence of its lonely waters.

 Not far within the entrance of this majestic bay there was the little town of St. Andrews, an exceedingly convenient resort for blockade-runners. There was a small blockading force guarding the coast there, under the command of Acting-Master William R. Browne. Learning that there were some pretty extensive saltworks in operation far up this bay, in regions where they could not be reached by our gunboats, and being fully convinced that in their wilderness seclusion they would not be protected by any military force, Mr. Browne fitted out a single boat’s crew of bold men, and sent them on an exploring adventure up the bay under the command of Acting-Ensign James J. Russel. It was the 2nd of December, a very delightful season of the year in that sunny region. 

They rowed along, in a westerly direction, about twenty miles, through a varied scene of wildness, desolation, and beauty, and then landing, marched through the wilderness country five miles until they reached a large sheet of salt-water, called Lake Ocala. Here they came suddenly upon Kent’s salt-works. There were thirteen huge tanks or kettles in full blast, each holding two hundred gallons. It seemed as though they had fallen upon some realm of Pluto, as they saw the immense fires blazing, negroes running to and fro feeding them with the resinous fuel, and the air filled with smoke and vapor. They were producing one hundred and thirty gallons of salt daily. Our boat’s crew, who certainly deserve the title of intrepid, broke the boilers to pieces, utterly demolished the works, and threw into the lake all the salt which they had accumulated. Two large flat-boats and six ox-carts were destroyed, and seventeen prisoners taken and paroled. 

The success of this expedition incited to other similar movements. It so chanced that the stern-wheel steamer Bloomer, under Acting-Ensign Edwin Cressy, arrived. The steamer was of such light draught that she could run almost anywhere over the shallow waters of the bay. Master Browne put three officers and forty-eight men on board, and sent them to the extreme western extremity of the bay, to a place called West Bay, where they found extensive Government salt-works, which were producing four hundred bushels daily. Here they destroyed twenty-seven buildings, two hundred and twenty-two boilers and kettles, five thousand bushels of salt, and storehouses containing three months’ provisions. The estimated value of the property destroyed was half a million of dollars. 

This little stern-wheeler, which a sailor said “could run wherever there was a light dew,” now steamed down the shore of the bay, penetrating all its secluded inlets, and destroyed a hundred and ninety-eight private salt-making establishments. Seven hundred and sixty boilers and kettles were broken to pieces, and an immense amount of salt thrown into the lake. There was also committed to the flames two hundred buildings, twenty-seven wagons, and five large flatboats. The entire damage to the enemy was deemed not less than three millions of dollars. Such is war! “War,” says Napoleon, “is the science of barbarians, the science of destruction.”

 By some strange instinct, in these far-away regions, the slaves, with universal acclaim, received the Union soldiers as their deliverers. No frowns of their masters could repress their delight. With joy, which at times passed all bounds, they availed themselves of the opportunity of escaping from a bondage which their souls loathed. These ever-true friends to the Union cause proved of great service in pointing out the location of salt-works, and the places where kettles had been, hastily buried for concealment. Thirty-one of these contrabands accompanied the steamer back.

 While these movements were in operation, Acting-Master Browne, learning from deserters that the town of St. Andrews had been for ten months occupied by a rebel military force, steamed up in the bark Restless to within a hundred yards of the town. Seeing a body of soldiers he shelled them, and drove them speedily into the woods. Then, selecting some of the westernmost houses for a target, he soon set them in flames by his shells, and the conflagration rapidly spreading, in a few hours thirty-two houses were reduced to ashes.