Patte,

  Good info.  Yes, there are lots of caves in that area, and because of them for many years, VA  led the county in the manufacture of saltpetre.  However, mining for saltpetre in caves in VA  --including a large cave at Natural Bridge, wasn't common until the War of 1812. ( It was from Natural Bridge that Rockbridge County got its name.)

  Prior to mining large quantities of saltpetre from caves, many militia mined their own saltpetre from earth on their farms.  (In MA. ca. 1775, militia members were required to make their own.)

    The Provincial Congress, two months before the battle of Lexington took place, resolved to appoint a committee to draw up directions "in an easy and familiar style" for the manufacture of saltpetre, these to be printed and sent to every town and district in the province at the public expense. Congress agreed to purchase all the saltpetre manufactured in the province for the next twelve months at a stated price. After the passage of this act a "simple countryman," it is said, brought into the House half a bushel of saltpetre which he had made, and promised that more could be made in eight months than the province had money to pay for. His method, the same as that described in the official Watertown pamphlet, is (in the language of a contemporary letter) "to take the earth from under old houses, Barns, &c., & put it lightly into a hogs-head or Barrel; & then fill it with water, wch immediately forms a lie. This lie he then puts into an ashes leach that has all the goodness
 extracted before, this being only as a strainer. After it is run thro' wch , he boils the Lie so clarified to a certain Consistance, & then puts it to cool, when the saltpetre forms, & is immediately fit for use; & from every Bushel of earth he produces 3/4 lb. saltpetre.

  (Source:  http://www.americanrevolution.org/soldier.html )

  I don't know where Thomas Rowland and his son Robert (who made "black gunpowder" commercially), got their saltpetre, but it seems that Thomas'
  10x10.5' powderhouse could have been either the place he mixed the
  finished nitrate with sulpher and clay or loaded cartridges for his rifle.
  Speaking of his rifle, did you see the article online at
  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Eqvarizona/rowlandrifle.html  ?

  Joanne


Patte Wood <[log in to unmask]> wrote:   My roots are in Botetourt County near the Alleghany and Rockbridge
lines. I am interested in the gunpowder discussion and in the
information regarding gunpowder and the Rowland family.
As many may know, this area has many saltpetre or limestone caves. It
is a Karst region and Rockbridge County is not named Rockbridge without
reason. I'll have to look, but I think there is reference to a
saltpetre cave near the area my family is from in some documents. My
GGGG Aunt Sally Wood married William Rowland, son of Thomas and Mary
Russell Rowland in 1819 in Botetourt County. They lived near Fincastle
in Botetourt Co. Interesting to note that my grandfather graduated
from VTech and became a chemist working for Dupont. He was transferred
to Washington State near Tacoma where a new powder plant was being
built around 1914. There he met and married my Grandmother.
Please email me at [log in to unmask]

Thanks,
Patte Wood
Lexington, VA

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