Two Civil War Enfield rifles that have been kept in water are chosen for wood conservation. The hope is to put them and 18 others on display

Conservation of 20 British-made rifles intended for Confederate use is in a significant new phase, as specialists have removed two of them from an aquarium tank so they can be treated with a wood preservative.

Josh Headlee, curator and historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and parks division archaeologist Aimee Bouzigard last month cleaned the tank that contains the wooden rifle crate and weapons.

The Pattern 1853 Enfields -- carried by a blockade runner and lost when it hit a sandbar in Charleston, S.C, in 1863 -- are in water at Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County, Ga., as corrosive salts are removed.

The tank also safeguards the rifles while the state develops means to one day exhibit them in open air.

Headlee told the Picket he will use SP-11 treatment made by Preservation Solutions. Conservators recently used SP-11 to treat an intact coffin found in 2013 on the edge of the marsh at Fort McAllister, a Confederate river outpost below Savannah.

They were pleased with the results and decided to try the chemical on the rifles.

“We feel optimistic about it,” said Headlee, adding the two removed weapons will remain in water until treatment.

“We are going to pick around each one, try to get the crusty stuff off the wood.” He said the rifles are coated with hardened materials, including rusted iron from the barrels.

Headlee travels to the park a couple times a year to do maintenance, which includes cleaning the tank and using a light stream from a hose to remove gathered muck and sediment from the crate and its contents. He adds fungicide to limit algae growth in the tank, which holds filtered freshwater.

Unfortunately, the iron rifle barrels, locks and bayonets are heavily deteriorated or gone. A tin and lead lining that sealed the cargo from salt air and ensured the rifles were not tampered with likewise is in bad condition.

Josh Headlee and Aimee Bouzigard handle rifles in July (Photos, Georgia DNR)

The trigger guards, butt plates and nose caps at the end of the barrels are brass and are still intact.

“The wood is in remarkably great shape. There are rifles we have that are broken. I assume that was damage they sustained when they were sinking,” Headlee said. One end of the crate was damaged, apparently when the CSS Stono sank.

The rifles were placed in an alternating butt to muzzle pattern before shipment, and blocks were used to prevent the weapons from shifting.

Headlee transported the rifles, a piece of the crate and a short wooden block. The items will be treated at a facility at Panola Mountain State Park.

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

Without chemical treatment, pieces of wood taken out of water will shrink, warp and crack. “They could literally just fall apart,” Headlee said last year.

The product is designed to displace water in the wood with preservatives that help to solidify the wood so it can be permanently exposed to the air.

Treating each rifle could take several months, so there is no timetable on completion of the project. The brass items will be treated separately and the conservators hope one day to reassemble them on the rifle stocks and what’s left of the barrels.

The CSS Stono, laden with precious arms, munitions and goods from Europe, in 1863 ran aground on a submerged sandbar off Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor while trying to evade Federal ships. Headlee believes the captain scuttled the vessel so the items could not fall into Union hands.

An archaeological diver pulled up the pine crate from the shipwreck in the late 1980s. Officials did not initially know how many of the highly-prized Pattern 1853 rifles were inside, their position or condition. Each weapon originally weighed about 9 pounds and was approximately 53 inches long. The bore is .577-caliber.

The craftsmanship involved in the manufacture of the guns was very good, Headlee said. “Enfield was top quality.” The Enfield was the second-most widely used infantry weapon in the Civil War after the Springfield.

The 1851 and 1853 Enfields, made for the British army, were an important technological advance from smoothbore to rifled muskets, increasing the accuracy and distance.

Researchers years ago found in the crate a bullet mold, tools and tampions, or cork and brass plugs inserted into the muzzle to ward off moisture.

At least one of the weapons bears the mark, “T. Turner,” a reference to well-known English gunmaker Thomas Turner, who turned out quality weapons in the mid-19^th century.

Only three intact cases of the single-shot weapon are known, according to a 2007 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

The CSS Stono was previously known as the USS Isaac Smith, a steamer that saw Federal service before its capture by Confederate land forces.

Example of a Civil War Enfield rifle (NPS photo)

Some of the CSS Stono’s contents were retrieved by the South, but others, including the crate of Enfields, could not be salvaged at the time, apparently because they were below the water line. In 1865, the “stuck” ship was burned to prevent it from falling into the hands of Federal troops.

The crate was originally curated by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (at the University of South Carolina), say Georgia officials. The South Carolina institute did conserve smaller items, but donated the rifle crate to Georgia for extensive conservation treatment and display. 

Headlee said “the sky is the limit” on how the weapons can eventually be presented and interpreted to the public, should conservation of the wood and remaining metal components be successful.

“To bring them to the light of day would be a huge success,” he said.