COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—A year-long cleanup of the Congaree River in South Carolina has yielded Civil War-era weapons, including bullets, cannonballs, swords, and at least one unexploded ordnance, according to a Live Science report. The artifacts are thought to have been dumped in the river in February 1865, when Union soldiers led by General William Tecumseh Sherman occupied the capital city of Columbia. According to historical accounts, they captured from Confederate forces more than one million ball cartridges, tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder, thousands of sabers and bayonets, as well as backpacks and tents. South Carolina state underwater archaeologist James Spirek said that the project has helped researchers to determine the extent of the area Sherman used as a dump site. To read about archaeological discoveries at a Civil War POW campsite, go to “Life on the Inside.”
Confederate Weapons Dump Found in South Carolina
News November 27, 2023
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2012
Hunley Revealed
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2022
A Civil War Bomb
Features May/June 2020
A Path to Freedom
At a Union Army camp in Kentucky, enslaved men, women, and children struggled for their lives and fought to be free
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2019
Cotton Mill, Prison, Main Street
-
Features September/October 2023
Ukraine's Lost Capital
In 1708, Peter the Great destroyed Baturyn, a bastion of Cossack independence and culture
-
Letter from Vesuvius September/October 2023
Digging on the Dark Side of the Volcano
Survivors of the infamous disaster rebuilt their lives on the ashes of the A.D. 79 eruption
(Courtesy Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone) -
Artifacts September/October 2023
Padlock
(Courtesy James Davidson) -
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2023
Nose to Tail