COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—Three cannons from the CSS Pee Dee, a 150-foot Confederate gunboat, have been recovered from the Pee Dee River. The cannons, each weighing more than 15,000 pounds, were on board when the gunboat was scuttled in 1865 as Union troops advanced. “The recovery of these three cannons—the complete armament of a Confederate gunboat—offers unique insight in the arming and intended role of this warship to contest the Union blockade off the coast of South Carolina and to perhaps engage in high seas raiding against Northern merchant vessels,” James Spirek of the South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) said in a press release. The wreckage of the CSS Pee Dee was broken up in 1906 by an Army Corps of Engineers dredging operation. Its propellers, engines, and a boiler were later recovered. The current project used sonar to discover iron bolts and timbers from the ship, in addition to the cannons. The project also identified the site of the Mars Bluff Navy Yard, one of seven inland Confederate naval yards, with ground-penetrating radar and other remote-sensing technologies. To read about a Confederate POW camp, go to "Life on the Inside."
