Raising the CSS Georgia (update): Artifacts recovery by the numbers

9,000-pound Dahlgren recovered i n 2015 (USACE)

As first reported by the Associated Press, CSS Georgia conservators are treating fewer than half of the 29,716 artifacts recovered from the scuttled Confederate ironclad’s watery grave in Savannah, Ga.

Russell Wicke, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district’ office, told the Picket that 165 tons (13,019 artifacts) went to a Texas A&M University laboratory for conservation, while 134 tons (16,697 items) were reburied in the river.

Why more artifacts reburied, while weighing less? That’s because the more mundane bolts, washers, nails and smaller items were not considered “unique,” according to the AP report. They were documented and placed in underwater storage containers.

Among the larger items being conserved are several heavy artillery pieces and sections of the armor casemate.

The Army Corps of Engineers has supervised the $14 million removal of the one-off CSS Georgia as part of a major harbor deepening project in Savannah. Research will continue for years on the vessel and its huge load of artifacts.

Wicke told the Picket his office is working with Texas A&M on obtaining a list of all artifacts and a progress report on conservation.