Civil War weapons thrown into river by General Sherman's forces recovered in South Carolina


November 20, 2023

Civil War weapons — including bullets, cannonballs and rusty swords — are among the debris pulled from the Congaree River in South Carolina during a year-long cleanup project targeting toxic coal tar on the waterway's banks.

The Civil War era haul wasn't surprising to Sean Norris, archaeological program manager at environmental consulting firm TRC. Previous underwater investigation "indicated the presence of multiple types of cannonballs and projectiles as well as hundreds, if not thousands of musket rounds," Norris told Live Science in an email.

In fact, historical records list thousands of additional items captured from Confederate troops. "We were not certain whether those items were deposited in the river along with the ordnance," he said.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeol...south-carolina