Legacy of the USS Montauk: Student at the Savannah College of Art and Design believes she has the blueprints for success to produce 3D model of ironclad for park

Blueprints are matched with 3D model; illustration of Montauk shelling Nashville

Like the Montauk itself, a 3D model of the noted Civil War ironclad must be watertight, with no problematic gaps or holes.

That’s one of many goals for Grace Stelmaszyk, a senior at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), who is working to produce and print a model of the Montauk for Fort McAllister State Park in Richmond Hill, Ga. The Montauk bombarded the Confederate fort and sank the raider Nashville (Rattlesnake) in February 1863.

The college previously produced interpretive panels about the Montauk and other Union ironclads for the park. Greg Johnson, interactive design and game development professor, has worked with students to make a 30-inch version of the Montauk, so it can be placed next to a model of the Nashville in the park’s museum.

Stelmaszyk (right) has picked up the project from another student, and she hopes to get it across the finish line in the next couple months. Johnson said she is doing “an amazing job” on the model, making sure it conforms with blueprints of the Montauk.

Key to the effort is a discovery made by park staffers several years ago: A matted long tube contained a precious copy of the USS Montauk’s blueprints, manufactured in dozens of sheets.

Johnson, after learning about the blueprints, used a custom-built rig to slide dozens sheets under a camera to obtain high resolution.

“Because I had to photograph the blueprints, since they were way too big to scan, there is a certain amount of distortion. Grace had to fix the distortion in the blueprints and then adjust the model to match,” Johnson said in an email.

Stelmaszyk, who is graduating with an interactive design and game development degree in May, hopes to have the model ready for printing by early summer.

“My current list of items to complete for a print-ready model are adding adequate thickness to all components of the model, combining all components so the model is ‘watertight,’ deciding how many pieces need to be printed separately and assembled (small things like the thin poles need to be separate since the printer may not print them right if they're part of a larger piece), and then sizing the model to the correct in-person length.”

Persistent Union ironclad finally got its prey

Working 3D Montauk model being produced for printing (SCAD photo)

The Montauk was one of 10 Passaic ironclads built relatively early in the Civil War.

Andy Hall, A Civil War naval expert and author, told the Picket the Passaic monitors were the first large-class of monitors and many of them served together, such as the campaign against the earthen Fort McAllister in 1863 and 1864.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and sisters Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant, supported by gunboats Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863.

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden (left), famous for being the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the ironclad 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1, 1863, found the vessel, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells. The Montauk's sister ships also took part in the action.

Its big day came on February 28. The sidewheeler Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River, but apparently ran aground.

The 215-foot blockade runner commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck because of its lack of maneuverability and deep draft in a tight area, and the Montauk pounced.

“All the monitors were designed for littoral or riverine operations, and so drew as little water as possible,” says Hall. “Nashville was built as an ocean-going steamship, so had a fuller, deeper hull.” That proved to be a disadvantage at McAllister.

Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider.

Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog. “However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad.” (Quarstein wrote a recent biography of Worden.).

The Union naval attacks on Fort McAllister itself were less successful. The low-profile earthen fort could withstand the shelling and repairs could be readily made. It eventually fell to land forces in December 1864.

The Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s; the park grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts.

USS Montauk (left) and USS Lehigh in Philadelphia in 1902 (Wikipedia)

While the monitors were mass-produced, they did undergo changes during the service, and SCAD students wanted to be sure the appearance of the Montauk matched the time it prowled off Fort McAllister.

SCAD is working from a Montauk paint scheme described in the work “Modeling Civil War Ironclad Ships” by Steven Lund and William Hathaway. 

The deck is lead gray, the turret and pilot house black with a narrow white ring, and the smokestack black with the upper one third in dark green.

Lots of tasks and challenges during project

SCAD and the park last year took measurements of the Nashville model and studied vital stats of both vessels, so the Montauk will be to scale. (Site manager Jason Carter below, Picket photo)

“This makes the USS Montauk model 30 11/16th inches or 780mm in length,” said Johnson. The ironclad, he says was slightly asymmetrical.

I asked the professor about the challenges of such a project.

“To build a complex 3D model like the USS Montauk and then 3D print it, you first need a solid understanding of 3D modeling fundamentals, know how to create clean geometry and also accurately match real-world measurements,” he responded.

“Software like Autodesk's Maya or 3dsMax is generally used -- so a very thorough understanding of that software is required. You must build the model specifically for printing by ensuring it is fully closed (watertight, with no holes in the geometry), has appropriate wall thickness, and accounts for overhangs or tolerances so that parts can be fit together after printing. Once the ship is modeled, it will need to be exported to a file readable by the 3D printer and then loaded into a slicer, where things such as layer height, infill, supports, and other print settings will need to be determined.”

After that is completed, the model must be assembled and painted.

Stelmaszyk said she is using Maya and ZBrush software.

The student said she joined the effort to help create something for the park and increase her knowledge on different types of projects that aren't only game-industry focused. “While maybe my knowledge on this ship isn't as vast as some, I enjoy the research that I get to do for the project to create for the public's enjoyment,” she wrote in an email.

“I'd say the most gratifying part of the experience is always working towards that end goal of printing and being able to hold it in my hands and see it in the world. All the little steps that are completed along the way also bring me a lot of satisfaction as I keep going forward. The most challenging part of this project would be predicting the final print. For example, predicting the thickness and what that will look like when printed or planning how you want to assemble the smaller, fragile pieces back onto the main body. But I've always loved solving puzzles.”

SCAD will be working from this paint scheme (Courtesy Steven Lund)

The ironclad USS Montauk sank the Rattlesnake at Fort McAllister. After delays, a 3D model of the Federal monitor is being produced for display at Georgia park

Early model of Montauk; section of blueprints (SCAD) and Professor Johnson describing its operations (Picket photo)

Jason Carter, site manager at Fort McAllister State Park in Richmond Hill, Ga., believes a model of the ironclad USS Montauk -- which prowled the waters and bombarded Confederate earthworks -- will be a cool educational tool at its visitor center.

Carter would like to see it positioned next to an old model of the CSS Nashville (Rattlesnake), a commerce raider the Montauk blew out of the water in February 1863.

Greg Johnson says completing and printing a precise 3D model of the Montauk -- one of 10 Passaic-class monitors -- will be a boon for graduate student Wilson Han, who is in his gaming class at the nearby Savannah College of Art and Design.

“A legacy piece,” Johnson says of the effort.

And Han (left), a native of China, is likewise excited by the project, which involves modern technology and a bit of old-fashioned model-making.

“I am always interested in history,” he says.

Now, five years after Johnson visited the park and met former interpretive ranger Mike Ellis, the dream of having a Montauk model is finally close to reality. Han has been working on the model design for the past couple months, using Autodesk Maya software. Han said April 1 the modeling is going well but slowly because of a busy college quarter.

The original goal of the project was to create compelling interpretive panels, a 3D ship model and film that explained the role of USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Fort McAllister.

The plan turned out to be too ambitious, given SCAD graduations and the complexity of work, which ran up against limited class time. Still, a half dozen wall panels and a schematic of the Montauk were created by SCAD students and installed in late 2022.

Work on a model stalled after that, but when I reached back out in December to Johnson, interactive design and game development professor at SCAD, he asked for contact information for park leadership (Ellis had left by then) and I connected him with Carter.

Jason Carter measures CSS Nashville exhibit to aid in model for Montauk (Picket photo)

Carter met with Johnson and Han at the park on Feb. 1 to discuss the 3D model, and I tagged along. The professor explained a previous student had made a 3D model for in-game simulation (for the film) but that aspect never came to fruition. Hence, the current effort to convert that to a printable 3D model.

Johnson stressed the work would be tedious, that Han would have to check all specifications and ensure the model was ready for printing.

“I have to be certain to do the job right,” Han told the Picket.

Accuracy is paramount, says Johnson, who located the likely paint scheme for the ironclad

“It will be down to the bolt,” he says of the reproduction.

The Nashville was trapped near this bend in the Ogeechee River (Picket photo)

Key to the whole effort – for the wall display and the model – is something Ellis found by chance several years ago.

Finding blueprints was a stroke of fortune

Ellis, now a guide and trainer for Old Towne Trolley Tours in Savannah, recalls being in a storage area at Fort McAllister in 2017. There were piles of documents and papers everywhere.

“As rangers come and go, things get lost to time,” he says.

Ellis went through some of them and found a matted long tube. Inside: A precious copy of the USS Montauk’s blueprints, manufactured in dozens of sheets.

One of numerous photos of blueprints shows turret (Courtesy Greg Johnson)

“I knew immediately what is was,” says Carter. Now the staff could upgrade the monitor exhibit, putting a facsimile of the blueprints on one wall.

Everything clicked during Johnson’s visit to the site. “Me and Greg spent a better part of the day taking photos of (the blueprints) in detail.”

They used a custom-built rig to slide dozens of sheets under a camera to obtain high resolution.

“These images were then processed, enhanced and stitched together using photo editing tools to make the panels,” Johnson says. The image could then be used for the wall, model or the film.

Showdown on the Ogeechee was one-sided

USS Montauk receives fire from Fort McAllister as it hammers the Nashville

Andy Hall, A Civil War naval expert and author, told the Picket the Passaic monitors were the first large-class of monitors and many of them served together, such as the campaign against the earthen Fort McAllister in 1863 and 1864.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and sisters Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant, supported by gunboats Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863.

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden (left), famous for being the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the ironclad 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1, 1863, found the vessel, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells. The Montauk's sister ships also took part in the action.

Its big day came on February 28. The sidewheeler Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River, but apparently ran aground.

The 215-foot blockade runner commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck because of its lack of maneuverability and deep draft in a tight area, and the Montauk pounced.

“All the monitors were designed for littoral or riverine operations, and so drew as little water as possible,” says Hall. “Nashville was built as an ocean-going steamship, so had a fuller, deeper hull.” That proved to be a disadvantage at McAllister.

Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider.

Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog.

“However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad.” (Quarstein’s new biography of Worden will be published April 15).

The Union naval attacks on Fort McAllister itself were less successful. The low-profile earthen fort could withstand the shelling and repairs could be readily made.

While the Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s, the park grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts.

USS Montauk (left) and USS Lehigh in Philadelphia in 1902 (Wikipedia)

And in this corner, weighing in at . . .

On the afternoon of my visit, Carter, Johnson and Han -- who is majoring in game development and interactive design -- met in a conference room and a museum gallery that houses the wall panels, artifacts and the CSS Nashville model.

Carter used a tape measure to get the dimensions of the Nashville display case. That was to help ensure the Montauk 3D model would be built in the proper scale (1/78).

Wilson Han and Professor Johnson are working from this paint scheme (Courtesy Steven Lund)

“This makes the USS Montauk model 30 11/16th inches or 780mm in length,” Johnson wrote in a later email. The ironclad, he says was slightly asymmetrical

Carter provided these vital statistics for the two warships:

Montauk, 200 feet long, beam 46 feet, draft 10 feet

Nashville, 215 feet long, beam 34 feet, draft 20 feet

While the monitors were mass-produced, they did undergo changes during the service, and SCAD students wanted to be sure the appearance of the Montauk matched the time it prowled off Fort McAllister.

SCAD is working from a Montauk paint scheme described in the work “Modeling Civil War Ironclad Ships” by Steven Lund and William Hathaway. 

The deck is lead gray, the turret and pilot house black with a narrow white ring, and the smokestack black with the upper one third in dark green.

To distinguish them, all 10 Passaic ironclads had some color variations.

Sources for such information on paint schemes are difficult to find, says model maker and writer Devin J. Poore.

“Black is very popular, (while) gray and white were used in really hot areas.”

3D printing is not for the faint of heart

Converting an item intended for a game to a 3D printable object requires numerous revisions.

The former are designed with much higher resolution so they can be used in interactive entertainment. Former SCAD student Collin Drilling created the original image of the USS Montauk. It had about 10,000 “holes;” he worked from May and Zbrush software.

Han’s task was to bring down the resolution and fine tune the details. Johnson had worked on the turret, and his student used that as a guide.

A version of the Montauk model before Han's work to modify it for printing (Courtesy SCAD)

Preparing the model for 3D printing is one thing, but ending up with a worthy final product is another. Lots of things can go wrong in printing – and often do, the SCAD team says. Plastic can shrink during the process, the printer footing may be off and a misfeed can occur.

The printer is like a dot matrix and the artist must determine how many pieces he should make for the ironclad model and figure in joints for assembly. While Han wants to keep it to perhaps one to three pieces, some items require more, says Johnson.

Poore (photo below) told the Picket the quality of any model, handmade or 3D designed and printed, depends on the skill of the modeler.

“3D models come off the printer needing sanding, priming, assembly, etc. Depending on how much work you put into the process depends on the result. There are certain benefits that 3D printing can have over hand making, such as pretty much guaranteed right angles and symmetry, but then again you have to worry about how to actually print a piece so that it comes out cleanly, and so that it won't warp in the future,” he says.

This project is a mix of newer and old technology. While the printing will produce the frame of the ship, finer pieces such as chains and rigging will need to come for a model kit or the like.

And the painting is definitely old school; Johnson said he expects to assist with that.

Passaics were primo, but had limitations

For Fort McAllister, the Montauk model will help further its education of visitors on the fort and various Federal attempts to subdue it.

Lund said the innovation and quality of the Passaic class made for the best monitors.

“Although two of the 10 produced were lost, some of them soldiered on into the 20^th century. At least two were recommissioned to serve as harbor defense vessels in the Spanish-American War. One of them, the USS Camanche, guarded the San Francisco Bay during that conflict. She was sold for scrap in 1908 and her hull functioned as a coal barge as late as WW II.”

A model of the U.S.S. Carondelt being made for 3D printing (Courtesy Devin J. Poore)

Poore says the Passaic monitors were a stepping stone in warship development but were underutilized and not appropriate for most situations they encountered..

“For the work needed on the Atlantic coast, i.e. reducing forts, they weren't the best candidates. They were built to fight Confederate ironclads, and simply didn't see much action in that regard, due to the limited number of Confederate opponents.”

Poore is in the process of making his first full-blown printed ironclad, the city-class U.S.S. Carondelet. The vessel had notable service in the Western Theater.

Devin J. Poore's model of the USS Weehawken (Courtesy of the creator)

USS Montauk, other monitors get bigger story at Fort McAllister in panels created by gaming and interactive design students in Savannah

Wall panels at the museum at Fort McAllister (Picket photos)

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) dreamed big in a project they hoped would add some pizzazz for visitors to Georgia’s Fort McAllister State Historic Park in nearby Richmond Hill, Ga.

Their goal was to create compelling interpretive panels, a 3D ship model and film that explained the role of USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Fort McAllister.

The plan turned out to be too ambitious, given graduations and the complexity of work that ran up against limited class time. Still, a half dozen panels were installed late last year in an exhibit dedicated to the clashes between Federal ships, the fort and the Rebel raider CSS Nashville, which was sunk by USS Montauk near the fort in 1863. I paid a visit to the site a couple weeks back.

The new panels in the park museum cover these topics: Civil War monitors, the Passaic class of monitors, armament, ironclads versus an earthen fort, commanders of Confederate and Union vessels and what happened to the Montauk and the others at Fort McAllister after the fighting. Near the panels are enlarged blueprints of the USS Montauk.

The panels feature photographs, drawings and illustrations. Park officials created a dock scene (left) with cotton bales to increase the effect.

The Picket, which first wrote about the SCAD project in March 2022, recently contacted Greg Johnson, interactive design and game development professor at SCAD, to get his perspective on the endeavor. The responses have been edited. 

Q. Were you pleased with how the panels worked out? How do they complement the rest of the exhibit on the monitors and the Nashville?

Greg Adams: Yes, I was pleased by how that portion of the project turned out. The new panels do a much better job of teaching the public about the fort and the historic events there than the previous displays did.

Q. What are the key takeaways on all the work, planning and production to create the panels? Was it harder than the team first thought?

Greg Adams (right): It was much harder than the team first thought, mainly on a time management level. Partly this was due to classes being only 10 weeks long. Partly due to students graduating from SCAD. Partly it was due to simply trying to do too much in too short of a time. I was very pleased by the persistence of the student teams who worked on the wall panels. That group of students truly went above and beyond the expectations of the class.

Q. What skills from this project will most benefit your former students in the years ahead?

Greg Adams: The most beneficial thing was the chance the students got to work on a professional project with such a fine institution. The project really demonstrated to all of my students how they can apply their skills in ways they had never considered before.

Q. The large blueprint/sketch and top view of the Montauk, both on the wall near the panels. How specifically did you and your team produce those?

Greg Adams: That was created by photo documenting the blueprints at a high resolution. We used a custom-built camera rig to enable us to slide the blueprints underneath a high-end camera. These images were then processed, enhanced and stitched together using photo editing tools to make the panels.

Renderings of USS Montauk and other items meant for film (Courtesy of SCAD)

Q. Is the Montauk 3D model still in production? I know you expected it to be completed by now. Why has it not been finished?

Greg Adams: That part of the production is paused. The student(s) responsible for making the model graduated and are now working full time and no longer have the time to work on the project. While the model got quite far along, it remains unfinished. If the museum is interested, that portion of the project may yet be able to be completed, but it would require an investment in a new group of students.

Q. Same for the film. Will that happen at some point?

Greg Adams: Unfortunately, the film production crew did not get very far and the students simply ran out of time. While a number of wonderful assets, such as the CSS Rattlesnake, were built, the film itself was nowhere near finished by the end of the class at which point these students graduated. 

Q. Any other thoughts?

Greg Adams: Overall, the results were good. The students got the most critical elements, the wall panels that the museum needed, produced and these have been installed at the museum.

The whole project was a wonderful learning experience for all of the students involved and everyone greatly enjoyed working with the museum on the project. I am very pleased that SCAD was able to help the museum create a new display.  

(Civil War Picket photos)

Georgia's Fort McAllister next month may formally dedicate wall panels about USS Montauk and other Union monitors

Interpretive panels explaining the role of the USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean are expected to formally debut next month at a Georgia park.

Fort McAllister State Historic Park manager Jason Carter in May said the site near Savannah might reopen an exhibit detailing the vessels and the Rebel raider CSS Nashville (Rattlesnake) on July 4. The CSS Nashville was destroyed by USS Montauk near the fort in February 1863. Park officials on July 2 said the panels were not yet up, and a date would be announced.

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) produced the panels and a 3D model of the USS Montauk. The model is expected to be put on display later this year. There’s also hope for an accompanying film, though that would be down the road.

The five new wall panels in the museum will cover these topics: Civil War monitors, the Passaic class of monitors, armament, ironclads versus an earthen fort, and what happened to the USS Montauk and the others at Fort McAllister after the fighting. The panels will feature photographs, drawings and illustrations.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and fellow monitors Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863. It was considered a trial run of sorts for the armored vessels, which effectively brought to an end the day of the wooden fighting ship. (Fort McAllister thwarted the attacks and held on until December 1864.)

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden, the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the USS Montauk 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1 found the ironclad, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells.

USS Montauk receives fire from Fort McAllister as it pounds CSS Nashville, upper right.

Its big day came on February 28, 1863. The sidewheeler CSS Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River

The 215-foot ship commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck after it ran aground near the fort.

“During the February 28, 1863 attack, Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider CSS Nashville. Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog post. “However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad and he, the hero of USS Monitor, received even greater laurels for his newest decisive actions.”

CSS Nashville artifacts in the museum (Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources)

While the Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s, Fort McAllister’s grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts and facsimiles.

A pavilion houses several pieces of the engine and the interior collection includes part of a cannon, ship fixtures, fittings, cargo tag, personal items and much more, including a model of the CSS Nashville.

Carter said the current exhibit on the CSS Nashville will remain the same. “We are going to create a ‘loading dock’ scene in the corner once we have the panels up. There will be boxes of rifles, munitions, etc, stacked up.” 

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.