COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—A planned environmental clean-up of the Congaree River in South Carolina could recover Confederate munitions that Union troops, under the command of General William T. Sherman, captured in 1865. Sherman’s army burned a third of the city and captured 1.2 million ball cartridges; 100,000 percussion caps; 6,000 unfinished arms; 4,000 bayonet scabbards; and 3,100 sabers. The soldiers reportedly dumped what they couldn’t carry in the river. Since then, fishermen and swimmers have recovered some of the weapons. “I’m sure there will be some interesting items. I don’t anticipate huge volumes,” state underwater archaeologist James Spirek told The State. The artifacts are expected to be found under some 40,000 tons of coal tar discharged into the river from a power plant 60 years ago. To read about the excavations of a Civil War prison, see "Life on the Inside."
