The Enfield rifles and the mystery coffin: How these fascinating wooden artifacts are being protected for future generations

Below, the coffin where is was spotted, under orange bucket (Georgia DNR)

  

Come read the adventure of one coffin, 20 rifles and two caretakers of Georgia history.

Our story begins in the 1980s. An archaeological diver in Charleston (S.C.) Harbor pulls up a crate of British-made Enfield rifles lost when a Rebel blockade runner ran aground in 1863.

The next chapter takes place in 2013. A state park employee on routine patrol spies the edge of the intact coffin jutting out of muck and sand on the marsh’s edge near Fort McAllister, a Confederate river outpost below Savannah, Ga.

Why mention seemingly unrelated artifacts? Let’s bring in the caretakers to weave them together.

Josh Headlee, a curator/historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, has for several years worked to ensure the rifles carried by the CSS Stono are on the path to permanent conservation.

They are at Sweetwater Creek State Park outside Atlanta in a freshwater tank, which is drawing out salt and other contaminants (2013 photo of installation of tank).

State archaeologist Rachel Black has studied the mystery of the empty coffin, which also went into a water tank after discovery. Did it contain the body of a Civil War soldier or a slave? Perhaps someone else? Or was it simply discarded?

Headlee and Black hope that the rifles and the coffin eventually will go on public display. But the waterlogged wood has to be preserved. Without such chemical treatment, pieces of wood taken out of water will shrink, warp and crack. “They could literally just fall apart,” Headlee said.

This is where the latest chapter begins. Before using a wood treatment on the rare rifles, Headlee wanted to test it on something else more than a century old. He and Black decided to try the preserver on an end piece of the coffin.

“It has done a tremendous job,” Headlee told the Picket. “We need something to replace what (wood) is missing. The preserver we use soaks into wood, displaces the water and basically solidifies itself.”

Over the past year, Headlee has used the SP-11 treatment made by Preservation Solutions on much of the plain coffin, which was handcrafted from several pieces. He is conserving the artifact at a DNR lab at Panola Mountain State Park. (at right, solution is applied on a long piece of the coffin; photo courtesy of Historic Preservation Division, Georgia DNR.)

“I’m currently working on the largest piece of the coffin.  It’s a beautiful piece that makes up approximately 2/3 of the bottom of the coffin and so it has a great angled ‘typical’ coffin shape to it,” he wrote in a recent email. “The piece after this one will be the last piece of the coffin and it is essentially the remaining third of the bottom.  If all goes well with it, it should be finished by the end of the year. All the pieces seem to be holding up pretty well coming out of treatment.”

Headlee hopes to wrap up conservation of the coffin by the end of the year.

While SP-11 has worked well as a composite for the coffin, likely made of pine, Headlee is mindful that the rifles probably have walnut stocks.

“Hopefully, next year we can begin treatment of the rifles in the crate at Sweetwater Creek SP. I expect that their treatment will likely take longer per piece simply because of the amount of metal (brass and iron) on them and the wood being more dense,” he says.

Rifles at Sweetwater Creek (Courtesy Historic Preservation Division, Georgia DNR)

Although the iron rifle barrels, locks and bayonets of the Pattern 53 Enfields are heavily deteriorated from saltwater corrosion, the stocks are in great shape.

“It (is) a once in a lifetime thing,” Headlee, said in 2013 of the rare opportunity to conserve and study a case of Enfields. Only three intact cases of the single-shot weapon are known, according to a 2007 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

Builder put care into wooden coffin

Black and Headlee have taken note of the craftsmanship that went into the coffin, which appears to have remnants of decorative motifs. The nails used to fasten the pieces are gone.

In 2016, when the Picket first spoke with Black, she could see square nail holes in the wood (photo at left, courtesy of Historic Preservation Division).

“I also could see some faint shadows on the sideboards, rusty spots near the holes,” she said this year. There is evidence of tacks. Black believes they may have fastened deteriorated decorative ornaments shaped like diamonds. “A very poor individual could have purchased (such accoutrements) to make their coffin more decorative.”

Based on the use of cut nails, the coffin likely was built prior to 1890, said Black. The rectangular casket became far more prevalent by the turn of the 20^th century.

 Archaeologists also discovered a small hole on each of the side panels, perhaps drilled so that a rope could be used to lower the coffin.

The box was about 68 inches long and could have accommodated a person about 5 feet, 6 inches, a common height for a man in the mid-19^th century. It was oriented with the head to the west, customary in many Christian burials.

Interestingly, the bottom of the “toe pincher” style coffin was made from two pieces. One is thicker than the other, so the head plate on one was made even by the coffin maker, who likely used a hand plane tool. That’s evidence of someone who had experience in working with wood.

The condition of the coffin when it was discovered along the Ogeechee River was considered outstanding. Water seeped into the wood and its being covered by soil in an anaerobic environment helped it maintain its condition.

The elements were not so kind to fasteners, nails and possible decorative items.

“They most likely rusted away, especially in the wet environment,” Black says.

'Throwing darts in the wind'

Black has looked at a range of possibilities of why the coffin was buried or left in the marsh:

-- Did the box once hold the remains of an enslaved person? Fort McAllister State Park sits on Genesis Point, once home to a large rice plantation. There’s a known slave cemetery to the west near Strathy Hall, which was built in the 18^th century.

-- Could this have been a burial for a Confederate soldier or sailor, or perhaps a Union soldier stationed there after the fort fell in December 1864 during Sherman’s March to the Sea?

-- Or was the coffin discarded and never used? Black believes that is unlikely, given the expense of applying decorative elements.

If the coffin was in the specific or general area of an interment, the environment likely changed over 150 years. It may have once been on high and dry land. The banks of the Ogeechee River at Genesis Point are eroding rapidly for several reasons, including increased river traffic.

Black hasn't been able to make a conclusion about the coffin's origin and possible use, though some of the construction techniques have a style common in shipbuilding.

When it comes to figuring out the coffin’s story, it “is kind of throwing darts in the wind,” says the archaeologist. (treated piece of coffin above right)

Troops at Fort McAllister battled monotony and Union naval forces for three years, finally falling to Federal land troops.

Among the Rebel units stationed at Fort McAllister was the local Republican Blues. A member of the Blues in 1863 drew a map of the fort and showed the McAllister plantation on the western edge. It’s not clear whether that location is accurate.

Black has said that records indicate an abundance of plantation activities were in the area of the coffin. In many cases, slave cemeteries are unmarked “and are lost over time.”

There may have been a cemetery on Genesis Point, but no evidence of one has been found.  Since only the single coffin has been found, that has led the archaeologist to believe it could be more likely associated with the Civil War fort.

In his book “Guardian of Savannah,” Roger S. Durham includes an account of a burial written by William Dixon of the Republican Blues.

“Sunday 6^th [March] 1864 … The Emmett Rifles arrived here this morning … Priv Murphy of that company died on board of the boat last night. He complained yesterday of feeling unwell but nothing was thought of it and this morning he was found dead. He was buried here this afternoon.”

The mystery of the coffin continues. And that’s where our story ends – for now.

                                                      (Courtesy of Historic Preservation Division, Georgia DNR)