By Chuck Mobley
A succession of scholars and officials, including a U.S. congressman, spoke Wednesday during a ceremony to announce the discovery of the exact location of Camp Lawton, a Civil War stockade that housed some 10,000 Union prisoners.
But the real stars of the occasion were five display cases filled with recently uncovered artifacts those men left behind - scarred, dented and rusted testaments to their service and sacrifice.
"We were astonished and humbled by what we found," said Sue Moore, an anthropology professor at Georgia Southern University and one of the speakers at the event, which took place at Magnolia Springs State Park.
Camp Lawton, constructed in late 1864 to help relieve overcrowding at the prison at Andersonville, held Northern soldiers and housed hundreds of Confederates who guarded them. It was hurriedly evacuated in November 1864 as a Union army under Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman approached.
Angry that the camp was empty, Sherman's men burned it. Over the years, its boundaries faded, and the state park was built on the site in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
No one thought the area contained such a rich vein of artifacts until one of Moore's graduate students, Kevin Chapman, began to dig around earlier this year.
"We were looking for the stockade walls, and thought we might find an item or two," said Chapman. However, when the effort uncovered a Union coat button, a musket ball and a large U.S. coin in a matter of minutes, he realized this was the discovery of a lifetime.
The individual artifacts are "little stories" that together reflect the efforts of soldiers to survive, he said.
To protect the site, and to give officials time to develop a plan on how to proceed, a security fence has been placed around it.
"We have to look long-term," said Chris Clark, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Only a small part of the site, perhaps 1 percent, has been excavated to this point, so it represents a huge opportunity to bring heritage tourism to Millen and Jenkins County, he said.
For the short term, the artifacts will go on display Oct. 10 at the Georgia Southern Museum.
Others who spoke at the ceremony included U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Savannah and John Derden, professor emeritus of history at East Georgia College and an expert on Camp Lawton.
The site and the artifacts thus far recovered are reflective of the experiences of prisoners on both sides during the Civil War, Derden said, calling it "hallowed ground."
Eyewitness portrayal of life at the camp
In putting together the effort to discover the location of the stockade walls of Camp Lawton, Georgia Southern University students and researchers used the richly detailed watercolors of the site painted by Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden, a Union soldier held there in late 1864.
"We honestly were surprised by how accurate they were," said Sue Moore, the Georgia Southern University anthropology professor instrumental in the process of locating the encampment.
Sneden's works, which included images of Andersonville, Camp Lawton and a prisoner-of-war camp in downtown Savannah, were discovered in the 1990s.
They were published, along with his diary, by the Virginia Historical Society in two books - "Eye of the Storm" and "Images of the Storm."
To learn more about Sneden and his illustrations, go to www.vahistorical.org.
His family saw both sides of captivity
Civil War re-enactor Steve Burke, who attended Wednesday's event in the uniform of the Burke County Sharpshooters, said he had relatives on both sides of prison-camp walls during that conflict.
His great-great-grandfather, Green L. Lambert, died of pneumonia in December 1864 at the Union camp at Elmira, N.Y., said Burke.
Two of his other relatives, William J. Johnson and James H.W. Oglesby, served as guards at Camp Lawton, he said.
The 53-year-old Burke added that he enjoys participating in living-history events such as the annual re-enactments at Fort Pulaski and Fort McAllister.
http://savannahnow.com/news/2010-08-19/civil-war-site-yields-treasure-trove-artifacts
A succession of scholars and officials, including a U.S. congressman, spoke Wednesday during a ceremony to announce the discovery of the exact location of Camp Lawton, a Civil War stockade that housed some 10,000 Union prisoners.
But the real stars of the occasion were five display cases filled with recently uncovered artifacts those men left behind - scarred, dented and rusted testaments to their service and sacrifice.
"We were astonished and humbled by what we found," said Sue Moore, an anthropology professor at Georgia Southern University and one of the speakers at the event, which took place at Magnolia Springs State Park.
Camp Lawton, constructed in late 1864 to help relieve overcrowding at the prison at Andersonville, held Northern soldiers and housed hundreds of Confederates who guarded them. It was hurriedly evacuated in November 1864 as a Union army under Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman approached.
Angry that the camp was empty, Sherman's men burned it. Over the years, its boundaries faded, and the state park was built on the site in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
No one thought the area contained such a rich vein of artifacts until one of Moore's graduate students, Kevin Chapman, began to dig around earlier this year.
"We were looking for the stockade walls, and thought we might find an item or two," said Chapman. However, when the effort uncovered a Union coat button, a musket ball and a large U.S. coin in a matter of minutes, he realized this was the discovery of a lifetime.
The individual artifacts are "little stories" that together reflect the efforts of soldiers to survive, he said.
To protect the site, and to give officials time to develop a plan on how to proceed, a security fence has been placed around it.
"We have to look long-term," said Chris Clark, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Only a small part of the site, perhaps 1 percent, has been excavated to this point, so it represents a huge opportunity to bring heritage tourism to Millen and Jenkins County, he said.
For the short term, the artifacts will go on display Oct. 10 at the Georgia Southern Museum.
Others who spoke at the ceremony included U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Savannah and John Derden, professor emeritus of history at East Georgia College and an expert on Camp Lawton.
The site and the artifacts thus far recovered are reflective of the experiences of prisoners on both sides during the Civil War, Derden said, calling it "hallowed ground."
Eyewitness portrayal of life at the camp
In putting together the effort to discover the location of the stockade walls of Camp Lawton, Georgia Southern University students and researchers used the richly detailed watercolors of the site painted by Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden, a Union soldier held there in late 1864.
"We honestly were surprised by how accurate they were," said Sue Moore, the Georgia Southern University anthropology professor instrumental in the process of locating the encampment.
Sneden's works, which included images of Andersonville, Camp Lawton and a prisoner-of-war camp in downtown Savannah, were discovered in the 1990s.
They were published, along with his diary, by the Virginia Historical Society in two books - "Eye of the Storm" and "Images of the Storm."
To learn more about Sneden and his illustrations, go to www.vahistorical.org.
His family saw both sides of captivity
Civil War re-enactor Steve Burke, who attended Wednesday's event in the uniform of the Burke County Sharpshooters, said he had relatives on both sides of prison-camp walls during that conflict.
His great-great-grandfather, Green L. Lambert, died of pneumonia in December 1864 at the Union camp at Elmira, N.Y., said Burke.
Two of his other relatives, William J. Johnson and James H.W. Oglesby, served as guards at Camp Lawton, he said.
The 53-year-old Burke added that he enjoys participating in living-history events such as the annual re-enactments at Fort Pulaski and Fort McAllister.
http://savannahnow.com/news/2010-08-19/civil-war-site-yields-treasure-trove-artifacts
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