Florida Saltworks in the Civil War

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Union raid on a Florida Confederate saltworks, 1862.

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

Despite the union blockade and raids, Floridians improvised using ocean water to continuing producing salt during the Civil War. The resource was vital to the preservation of meat and fish.

A vital commodity used in the preservation of meat and fish, salt was one of the most important resources produced in Florida for the Confederacy. The war’s outbreak brought a blockade of Southern ports by the Union navy and the cutting off of the supply of salt from the North. Within a short period of time the price of the commodity had risen to an exorbitant level, and Southerners looked for new sources.

By 1863, the main Florida saltworks produced more than 7,500 bushels per day.

Florida’s long coastline provided part of the answer, as seawater could be boiled to produce the necessary article. The largest operations were established on the central and northern Gulf Coast and, by 1863, the main Florida saltworks produced more than 7,500 bushels per day. However, the saltworks, with their vulnerable locations along the coastline, became the targets of raids by the Union navy. Federal officials complained that the saltmaking operations sprang up again almost as soon as the raiders had left.

Nevertheless, the Union attacks were so worrisome that Florida Governor John Milton made efforts to station Confederate troops along the coast, and also authorized the saltmakers to organize themselves into military companies for defense. Despite the Union raids, the production of the vital commodity continued until the end of the war.

To learn more, see: “The Extent and Importance of Federal Naval Raids on Salt-Making in Florida, 1862-1865” by Ella Lonn, The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4, April 1932.