A lesser known subplot of the War Between the States was the Union effort to deprive the confederacy of salt. It is difficult to overstate how much the shortage of salt in the Confederacy contributed to the ultimate Union victory.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.