it shipped to Europe and South America. At the time of their destruction in 1865, they were the largest of their kind in the world. Mining/Mineral Resources Salt was a crucial resource during the Civil War. Salt not only preserved food in the days before refrigeration, but was also vital in the curing of leather. The salt could be extracted from natural rock salt deposits (such as those in underground salt domes) and through the boiling and evaporation of salt water, usually seawater. The main salt works and known natural salt deposits of the Confederacy were located in Virginia, Louisiana, and Florida. Textiles Early in the war, the government used cottage and home-based industry to manufacture textiles such as shirts and shoes. Finding this approach inadequate, the government moved to consolidate finished-goods production into military-run textile shops concentrated in larger cities. These textile shops, with the exception of those captured or destroyed, continued to run until the end of the war. Private mills generally supplied raw textiles to these shops for refinement. Privately-owned textile mills found themselves in a very lucrative market. Rising prices due to scarcity and high levels of demand made sales to the public far more profitable than fixed-price contract sales to the military, so much so that in the first year private mills often refused or cut back on fulfillments ordered by Confederate quartermasters. Government control While the general political sentiment in the Confederacy was reluctance towards government involvement in private business, the exigencies of the war forced the Confederate government to exert a strong control over industry related to war aims. The bureau of conscription, empowered by the Conscription Act of 1862 and 1863, dispensed exemptions to those in industry, if necessary, provided a powerful incentive to private industry to fulfill government contracts. If an owner refused, they would find themselves quickly without their labor force, free or slave. Business leaders William Gregg (industrialist) Samuel Griswold Hannibal Kimball Samuel Morgan John L. Porter Francis A. Pratt William T. Sutherlin Transportation Navigation Before the war the South had a good system of transportation by riverboats on a huge network of navigable rivers, plus a dozen ocean ports. In May 1861 the Union naval blockade shut down almost all port activity except for blockade runners. International and coastal traffic fell 90 percent or more. In peacetime, the vast system of navigable rivers allowed for cheap and easy