Empty coffin found at Georgia's Fort McAllister is now fully conserved. Perhaps one day the artifact will be exhibited.

Conservators in Georgia have completed treatment of an intact coffin found in 2013 on the edge of the marsh at Fort McAllister, a Confederate river outpost below Savannah, Ga.

Officials have thus far been able to solve the mystery of the empty coffin. Was it used for a Civil War burial or for an enslaved person? Or was it simply discarded at some point?

Josh Headlee, a curator/historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, told the Picket recently all the pieces of wood that made up the box are fully treated and out of water used to prevent them from becoming brittle.

“It looks great,” he wrote in an email. “While each piece is slightly tacky to the touch from the treatment, overall, I can’t complain. There is no seeping-out of anything from the wood, no cracking or checking to the wood to report so we’re very pleased.”

Headlee used a chemical preserver to stabilize the wood (Note: Georgia DNR photo above shows wood before treatment). 

State archaeologist Rachel Black, who has studied the coffin for several years, and Headlee said they are unaware of any immediate plans to display the artifact at Fort McAllister. Putting it out for display will require exhibit space and funding.

“I’d love to see the coffin go on exhibit at Fort McAllister if even just temporarily. It’s not something I’ve approached the site about, though, since we just finished up the conservation,” Black said.

The coffin where it was discovered, under orange bucket (Ga. DNR)

“It can definitely be reassembled as a coffin, but I wouldn’t want to reassemble it permanently. One of the really interesting things about this situation is the disassembled coffin gives us the opportunity to better examine coffin construction techniques. I’m hoping there is a way to build bracing that would allow us to assemble and disassemble it for exhibit,” the archaeologist said in an email.

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 were gone, as was the lid.

In 2016, when the Picket first spoke with Black, she could see square nail holes in the wood.

One of the coffin pieces during treatment (Ga. DNR)

“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 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.

But no one knows how the coffin came to be there or if it was even used. Fort McAllister 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. Confederate soldiers and sailors were at or near Fort McAllister and Union forces were stationed there after the fort fell in December 1864 during Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Map of plantation, at left, and the fort (Courtesy of Fort McAllister State Park)

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 said.

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.