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Civil War weapons — including bullets , cannonballs and hoary swords — are among the rubble pull up from the Congaree River in South Carolina during a class - longsighted cleanup project place toxic ember old salt on the waterway ’s bank .
The Civil War earned run average draw was n’t surprising to Sean Norris , archaeological program manager at environmental consulting firm TRC . Previous underwater investigation " indicated the presence of multiple types of cannonball and rocket as well as hundreds , if not thousands of musket rounds , " Norris recount Live Science in an email .
A cannonball found during the Congaree River cleanup project.
In fact , historical criminal record list thousands of extra items captured from Confederate troops . " We were not sure whether those detail were deposited in the river along with the ordnance , " he said .
The 100 - old artifact ended up in the river in February 1865 , when Columbia , the res publica ’s capital and a strategically important railroad city , was occupied by the Union Army under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman , who marched north into South Carolina watch his successful movement in Savannah , Georgia .
Sherman ’s capture of Columbia was brief but helter-skelter ; mobs of Confederate soldiers and townspeopleplundered businesses and storage warehouse , fires rebuke , and with no army to fight back it against Union forces , the city manager surrendered the town . Much of Columbia was burned to the background , and the Union army dump capture Confederate munition into the Congaree River , including over a million ball cartridges , more than 26,000 pounds of powder , 1000 of sabres and bayonets , and even backpacks and tents .
A cannonball found during the Congaree River cleanup project.
relate : corpse of 4 Confederate soldiers , cut off legs and Au coins found at a Civil War battlefield in Virginia
The Congaree River was a dumping soil in more recent time as well . From 1906 to the mid-1950s , amanufactured flatulency plantnow own by Dominion Energy , which used coal and oil to make natural gas for cooking and heating system , created the toxic spin-off ember pitch , which they dump into the river .
" Dominion Energy has been advocating for the recovery and conservation of these artefact since this projection begin over 10 age ago , " Norris said , but the presence of Civil War undischarged ordnance — live ammunition — made the outgrowth challenging .
Examples of different sizes of canister and grapeshot recovered during the Congaree River cleanup project.
River cleanup at last protrude in spring 2022 and roll up in October of this year . Norris and his team recovered many , but not all , of the types of ordnance listed in the Civil War inventory records , in gain to aboriginal American arrowhead and more forward-looking meth , like car office and widget .
Relics associated with Sherman ’s destruction of Columbia that were regain during cleanup include bullets , round shot and swords , some of which were displayed at a pressing league on Nov. 13 . At leastone unexploded ordnancewas recovered and dealt with by munitions expert at Shaw Air Force Base .
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Although many of the alloy objects found by archaeologists were corroded from their decades'-long stint in the river , the cleanup project has produce a wealthiness of artefact that " help to locate and set apart the extent of the Sherman Dump Site in the Congaree River , " South Carolina nation underwater archaeologistJames Spirektold alive Science in an email . The fresh observe artifacts also " total a little more detail to the events fence in the Union troops ' administration of the warfare stuff in the river , " Spirek supply .
The site of the Civil War ordnance dump is already eligible for list in the National Register of Historic Places , but more information may be forthcoming . " We are in the net phases of covering and recovery now , " Norris aver .
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