During a South Carolina river cleanup project, Civil War weapons were unearthed. The findings include rusty swords, cannonballs, and bullets.
Civil War Weapons Found
The cleanup project which recovered the weapons aimed to target toxic coal tar on the banks of the Congaree River's waterways.
While the discovery may appear interesting, archaeological program manager Sean Norris from the TRC environmental consulting firm did not find it surprising. Earlier underwater investigations showed that several kinds of projectiles and cannonballs and hundreds or even thousands of musket rounds were present.
Interestingly, based on historical records, thousands of other items captured from troops of the Confederate were listed down. Norris explains that they were uncertain about if these items were deposited within the river with the ordnance.
Weapons of General Sherman's Forces
The Civil War artifacts reached the river back in February 1865. This was when the Union Army, which was under General WIlliam Tecumseh Sherman's command, occupied Columbia, the capital of the state. The general marched north to South Carolina after his campaign in Savannah, Georgia, was successful.
The general's capture of Columbia was quite brief. However, it was chaotic as Confederate soldiers and townspeople plundered warehouses and businesses as fires rage. As the town did not have an army to defend itself against the Union forces, the mayor had to surrender.
Much of the city ended up burned, while the Union army dumped their munitions right into the Congaree River. These munitions included over 26,000 pounds of gunpowder, more than a million ball cartridges, thousands of bayonets and sabres, and even tents and backpacks.
Congaree River Dumping Site
While this case involving Civil War weaponry shows that the Congaree River was used as a dumping site back then, it has also been used for such purposes during recent times. From 1906 all the way to the 1950s, a manufactured gas plant made coal tar, a toxic byproduct, that they dumped right into the river. This gas plant is now owned and managed by Dominion Energy, which made use of oil and coal to create gas necessary for heating and cooking.
Norris explains that Dominion Energy has been rallying the preservation and recovery of such artifacts since the project started more than a decade ago. However, the Civil War ammunition presence made this more difficult to achieve.
The cleanup project on the river started in spring 2022 and ended just last October. The team of Norris was able to recover several ordinances listed in the inventory records of the Civil War. They were not able to find all of them.
According to underwater archaeologist James Spirek, though several of the recovered artifacts were found to be corroded, the project has yielded extensive artifacts that aided in isolating and locating the degree of the Congaree River's Sherman Dump Site. The newly found items also give more depth to the events regarding the war material's disposal in the river.
Check out more news and information on Archaeology in Science Times.
