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 “Marking the Trail of Our Civil War History, Davidson County”
This research was developed by an author of several local and regional Civil War books, Christopher M. Watford, who maintains the copyright. Covering Davidson County’s role during the latter parts of the Civil War, Watford’s research was used in 2007 in developing the six historical markers in Davidson County that are part of the North Carolina Civil War Trails. http://www.civilwartrails.org/
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OPERATIONS AT SILVER HILL 1838-1865
The history of the Silver Hill Mine, according to all authentic accounts began in the spring of 1838, when "the owner (Byerly) of a small tract was led to examine a spot at the top of a hill...in the hope of finding gold. He found the carbonate of lead and then sold his possessions."1 Mr. Roswell King approached the owner after this discovery and offered to purchase the tract. Within the summer, King had already sunk a shaft, and discovered ores with all of the other metals: silver, copper, zinc, and by the winter of 1838, the Washington Mining Company was incorporated and opened for business.2
Gold was perhaps the first quantity sought after in the Washington Mining Company, but in 1844, silver was firmly the mine's major product yielding over $24,000 to gold's $7,250; nearly three times the gross production.3 The Silver Hill mine became, by far, the largest silver producing operation in the state of North Carolina, and its success led some officials to claim that perhaps it was the "only one in the nation."4 While silver was mined at other sites with Davidson County and in the Piedmont region, no other mine could match Silver Hill's production or its other minerals, including lead.
From its founding in the winter of 1838 until 1852, Washington Mining Company and the Silver Hill Mine were operated by a firm based in Philadelphia. Along with other mining companies, Washington sought after the most advanced techniques for extracting pure minerals, often employing different strategies to attain the best quality. Under the administration of the Philadelphians, the Silver Hill Mine would be one of the most worked over and processed mines in North Carolina. Despite the difficulty in separating the various metals, the Silver Hill Mine remained one of the most active and processed mines in the state of North Carolina, through the end of the Washington Mining company's involvement in the area.
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Figure 1: Diagrams of Shafts worked up to 1854,
Silver Hill Mine, Davidson County5
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The mining effort at Silver Hill was arguably the largest employer in the county prior to the Civil War, and perhaps the most diverse. Not only did the company employ local workers with names like Forshee, Beck, Primm, and Rickard, for various jobs and duties, but also accounted for "Negro" expenses in its ledger, and often recruited experienced immigrants, predominately of either English, Scottish, or Welsh descent who had experience in the mines of their native lands to provide the skilled labor vital to production.6 In fact, before the civil war, eighty-eight employees can be traced to the mine and of those fifty-four were foreign-born, with the largest portion coming from England. Some of the foreign-born laborers had families and were reported as heads of household; however, the majority of these workers, as well as men from other U.S. states, were single and boarded in local homes or in one of the five boarding houses in the area.7
In the mid 1850s, Washington Mining Company forfeited its interest in the Silver Hill Mine. However, such a rich resource was not to be idle for long. Franklin Osgood, Henry Schoonmaker, William Borrowe and other partners officially incorporated a new entity, known simply as the "Silver Hill Mining Company" to harvest the underground wealth. Unlike its predecessor, the Silver Hill Mining Company set up an office in New York, and certainly utilized slave labor to help boost production.8 For the most part, Silver Hill was worked extensively through the 1850s and into the next decade and the approaching Civil War, except for a short pause prior to the commencement of hostilities.
With the secession of North Carolina in May of 1861, the Confederate War Department's Niter and Mining Bureau sought to put the Silver Hill Lead Mine into production for the struggling southern war machine. In the opening stages of the war, geologists and government agents underscored the value and scope of Silver Hill's lead deposits, initially renting Mines for six hundred dollars per month. 9 Outside a well known mine in Wytheville, Silver Hill was the only other large-quantity mine in the southeast, and, with its machinery and facilities already in place, it made an important acquisition for the new government. According to one official in the Niter and Mining Bureau:
… the Confederate government has ordered the working of a mine in North Carolina. In reference Governor Winslow writes, August 8: "I have written to Pasco,10 an experienced miner, to come down and get ready to open the Silver Hill Mine, in Davidson County.11
By the end of July 1862, the Silver Hill Mines were under Confederate authority. Lead was considered too vital a commodity for the government to negotiate with private contractors and businessmen. Production was the sole responsibility of the government, and could be regulated through the proper channels. Initially when mining the lead, great attention was paid to preserving the silver as well, for obvious reasons. Initially, the authorities intended all of the Silver Hill lead to be smelted in Petersburg, Virginia but shipping expense and inconvenience decided to construct some type of smelting works in the area to assist in the desilverizing process, which was later identified as the "C.S. Smelting Works."12 While desilverization was necessary, many times the silver was not be totally extracted, giving credence to local legend in Davidson County that Confederate soldiers using the bullets made from Silver Hill lead were shooting their enemies with silver bullets.
While the legend cannot be confirmed or officially denied; it is likely, as the desire more lead became more apparent as the war progressed. St. John reports that more than four tons of lead were needed every day to meet the army's demands. The Niter and Mining Bureau authorized the importation of lead from Great Britain, and even went so far as to provide for the purchase and collection of scrap lead and other metals. With the desire for increased production, the Confederate authorities met the labor shortfall by detailing men to work at the lead mines. In September of 1862, several Davidson County soldiers with previous mining experience or either employed at Silver Hill Mining Company before the war, were detailed out of their current companies and regiments and ordered to report to the mine's superintendent, now of course a Confederate official, for at least sixty days of work.
All of the twenty men detailed to return to Silver Hill were Davidson County residents before the commencement of the war. The largest single group represented was the "Holtsburg Guards," a group of volunteers from the southern and central parts of the county which was to be designated as Company A, 54th North Carolina Troops under the command of Captain Anderson Ellis.13 Among those men was Private John Primm who survived the war and became superintendent of the Silver Hill Mine for nearly thirty years in the late 1800s.14 As time wore on, other men were ordered to report to Silver Hill, and in each case, the majority were former employees or contractors with the company's antebellum management. No primary sources exist to document the miners' experience working for the Confederate Government; however, the men were furnished medical attention, as Dr. Robert L. Beall saw to their physical health. The labor of these detailed miners was valuable to Confederate authorities. Indeed, the majority of the detailed men were never ordered to return to Confederate service, serving throughout the war until receiving their paroles at either Greensboro or Salisbury. The influx of this new source of labor helped to keep Silver Hill Lead Mine at satisfactory production levels throughout the war.
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Figure 3.2: Return of Production: Other Metals
January 1, 1863-January 1, 1865.15
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Along with a lack of first-hand reports from the mines, no formal accounting of the daily production levels
or further business transactions exist outside of overall Niter and Mining Bureau statistics. During its use by the Confederate States, the Silver Hill lead mine, along with its counterpart in Wytheville, Virginia together supplied nearly three times the pounds of lead than all other lead mined in every other Confederate state, scrap lead gathered, and Mexican imported quantities. In addition, these two sister mines were also exceeding British imported pigs by nearly two hundred and forty thousand pounds during the years 1863-1864, as indicated in the only existing formal abstracts in the Official Records shown.
The actual disposition of the Silver Hill Lead Mines at the close of the Civil War remains somewhat of a mystery. With the collapse of the Confederate War effort, the Bureau of Niter and Mining would have certainly closed. However, at no time during the war did this important facility fall into enemy hands. During the early spring of 1865, Union General George Stoneman's cavalry division conducted a raid throughout western North Carolina. While it seems that the Silver Hill Lead Mines were not one of the raider's primary targets, that if given the chance, the Union commander would not have missed the opportunity to destroy such a vital asset to the southern military-industrial efforts. Instead, the fall of the Confederacy in April 1865 forced the mining operations to halt.
In the years following the Civil War, the Silver Hill Mine was quickly reopened and then remained active. After another brief closing, its main shaft was improved between 1898 and 1900 to sink to a depth of 750 below the surface.16 Under the watchful eye of Superintendent Primm, the Silver Hill Mine would produce and estimated one million dollars of silver, lead, and zinc during its operating years- a much larger figure when placed in 1800s currency. Other, larger and new mines were found within the same general area in south-central Davidson County in later years; however, during the years 1838-1865 the Silver Hill Mine proved to be an incredible resource for both private companies and the Confederate government, on which both depended heavily.
Copyright Christopher M. Watford, 2007
1. Mitchell, Elisha, ed., Elements of Geology: With an Outline of the Geology of North Carolina, 1842; Pogue, Joseph E., Ph.D, "Cid Mining District of Davidson County," North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey, No. 22, Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 1910. 99.
2. Mitchell, Elisha, ed, Elements of Geology, 1842.
3. Pogue, Joseph E., Ph.D, "Cid Mining District of Davidson County" 99.
4. Knapp, Richard F. and Brent D. Glass, Gold Mining in North Carolina: A Bicentennial History, Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1999, 41.
5. Facsimile of Engraved Plate II, Nitze, Henry and George B. Hanna, "Gold Deposits of North Carolina" North Carolina Geological Survey No.3, 1896, 1996, 62-63.
6. A listing of all eighty-eight known Silver Hill Mine Employees in 1860 is included in packet.
7. The five boarding house operators and their number of boarders as follows: Mrs. N. J. Alley (6), Susannah Hedrick (4), Daniel McDaniel (5), Thomas Simmons (4), George Penaluna (18). Federal Census of Davidson County, North Carolina: 1860.
8. Records of the Silver Hill Mining Company describe "reimbursements for Negro labor" made to owners. Account Book, Records of the Silver Hill Mining Company, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
9. Account Book, Records of the Silver Hill Mining Company, Southern Historical Collection.
10. This is possibly in reference to Richard Pascoe, a native of England who was listed as a "miner" in 1860. Federal Census of Davidson County: 1860.
11. Report 12 August 1861 to War Department, Official Records, Sr. 4, Vol 1, 555-556.
12. Vogt, James R., North Carolina 1861-1865. North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1961.
13. Jordan, Weymoth T., ed., North Carolina Troops, 13:250-258.
14. Biographical Sketch, John M Primm Papers, Special Collections Library, Duke University.
15. Official Records, Sr.4, Vol. 3, 990.
16. Carpenter, P. Albert, "Metallic Mineral Deposits of the Carolina Slate Belt, North Carolina," Division of Land Resources-Geological Survey Section, Bulletin 84, North Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Community Development: 1976, 25.
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