Percussion caps and friction primers: Q&A on students in Georgia who found evidence of wild cavalry chase, valiant rearguard stand

Big Buchkead Church, percussion cap (top right) and artillery primer (Camp Lawton project)

Members of the archaeology program at Georgia Southern University have pinpointed where a Ohio cavalry regiment helped successfully hold off charging Confederate horsemen during Sherman’s March to the Sea, the head of the project says.

Students at the university in Statesboro participated in a summer field school from May 15-June 16 at the site in Jenkins County.

Associate professor Ryan McNutt, who heads up the school’s Camp Lawton Archaeological Project, said about 1,000 artifacts were recovered. “I think we’ve made a very good start to confirming the location of portions of the Buckhead Creek battle lines, and this is something that future work will only develop and refine.”

The project for several years has been researching the remains of a nearby Confederate prison camp that was in operation for several weeks in fall 1864.

In 2020, the university was awarded a $116,247 grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program to document and evaluate the archaeological integrity of two skirmish sites toward the end of Gen. William T. Sherman’s march to Savannah: Buckhead Creek and the subsequent Lawton (Lumpkin’s) Station.

Students tackled the Lawton Station fight first, finding evidence in early 2021 of an engagement.

The program decided to study Buckhead Creek this year, concentrating on property around an historic church caught up in the fighting.

The Battle of Buckhead (or Buck Head) Creek on November 28, 1864, involved cavalry forces under Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick and Confederate Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler (below, right). It took place across what are now Jenkins and Burke counties.

Kilpatrick (above, left) was in the area to destroy railroad between August and Millen and burn a trestle. Another objective was to release the Camp Lawton prisoners, but Union forces discovered they had been moved to other sites. Federal forces were able to destroy a mile of track.

On the 28^th, Wheeler “almost captured Kilpatrick, and pursued him and his men to Buckhead Creek. As Kilpatrick's main force crossed the creek, one regiment (the 5^th Ohio Cavalry), supported by artillery, fought a rearguard action severely punishing Wheeler and then burned the bridge behind them,” says a National Park Service summary of the fighting. “Wheeler soon crossed and followed, but a Union brigade behind barricades at Reynolds' Plantation halted the Rebels' drive, eventually forcing them to retire.”

The Picket’s questions about Buckhead Creek and McNutt’s written responses below have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q. Was all of the work at the church? Why there -- any particular historical accounts you wanted to map?

A. All of our work took place around the Big Buckhead (Baptist) Church, on property owned by the Jenkins County Historical Society, for which we had permission to conduct archaeology on. This was for a few reasons. First, primary sources mention the church extensively as a landmark during the conflict over the creek crossing, and the Union withdrawal to Reynolds' Plantation. Secondly, the church’s property encompasses the end point of the causeway from Buckhead Creek Bridge, on line with the historic pilings visible from the modern bridge, and straddles the route of the historic road Gen. Kilpatrick and his 3^rd Cavalry Division retreated along. The (Federal) rear guard artillery action is the bit that likely occurred around the church.

Q. What date was the skirmish or skirmishes your team was studying? Were most of those engaged cavalry?

A. The battle occurred November 28, 1864 -- the action at the church occurred at noon on this date, which we know from a letter from the colonel commanding the 5^th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry who documented the regiment’s involvement in his report. All troops engaged were cavalry, with one light artillery regiment (the 10^th Wisconsin) on the Union side as part of Kilpatrick’s 3^rd Cavalry Division. Wheeler’s Confederate forces are less clear. He seemed to have some artillery attached, and we found some potential evidence of ad hoc Confederate canister shot that seems similar to items recovered from the Battle of Pea Ridge, but this is very tenuous at the moment and needs more lab analysis and documentary research. (Photo of left, Camp Lawton project)

Q. One of your Facebook posts said "pistols were used in the skirmish at Buckhead Creek Church alongside long arms and artillery pieces." Did you find artifacts from all three?

A. We found evidence of .22-caliber rimfires from a Smith & Wesson Model 1, and a lone percussion cap that fits a Colt Army 1860 .44-caliber revolver (or its equivalent). Artillery was identified primarily through fired friction primers, which were all localized in one area of the grid, in a position to deliver enfilading fire on the causeway and bridge across the road. We have some potential evidence of canister tins, and one possible piece of canister shot, but confirming the identification of these is an ongoing process tied to their conservation. Evidence of long arm use so far comes from exclusively percussion caps, in the top hat style, but there are some odds and ends that might be arms-related as well.

Brass rimfire casing for a revolver (Camp Lawton Archaeological Project)

Q. How far below the surface were the artifacts typically found?

A. Fairly deep -- almost all the munitions were recovered between 20 and 25 cms (8-10 inches below surface.

Q. How many in total were recovered? Any personal items or were all arms-related?

A. We recovered probably around 1,000 individual artifacts, and this included some historic glass, lantern parts, ceramics, numerous machine-cut nails, several boot nails and a few potential horse shoe nails, as well as the arms related items.  Many of these domestic items likely relate to the use of the site by the church, which has been continually used a place of worship since before the Revolutionary War and was certainly in existence from 1787. There were no clearly identified personal items from soldiers, but that may be a result of a long-term metal detector activity on the site.

Q. Any related to horse tack?

A. We almost certainly have some iron items that are related to horse tack, but they’re not obviously military in origin.

Reproduction percussion caps have maker's mark less patina (Camp Lawton project)

Q. You found lots of percussion caps. Were those mostly from pistols?

A. In fact, they’re almost all from long arms, and likely Sharps, which were the carbines the 5^th Ohio was issued with -- we found about 23 top hat style percussion caps, in a distinct line with several clusters, that likely indicates a skirmish line (given that the clusters are about 3-4 meters apart across the site, and in an angled line facing the causeway and old bridge site).

Q. The friction primers – Union or Confederate? Their use?

A. These are likely all Union, given their location. Friction primers were a gunpowder-filled copper tube inserted into the touchhole in the rear of the cannon barrel into the gunpowder charge. A roughened wire was fixed into a spur that was filled with antimony sulfide and potassium chlorate, which essentially acted like a matchhead when the wire was pulled through the spur.

A lanyard would have run from the wire to the hands of the gunner and yanking the lanyard pulled the wire out, ignited the friction primer, and fired the gun. The used exploded copper tube was then explosively hurled into the air and to the rear of the gun (depending on the cannon tube’s elevation).

For our purposes, the exact location of these friction primers is quite important, because we have primary accounts describing the presence of artillery at the Battle of Buckhead Creek Church, and general indications of their positioning.

Wartime photo of 5th Ohio Cavalry (Library of Congress)

The 5th Ohio Cavalry Regiment, Company G, had obtained two 12-pound mountain howitzers, and these were positioned to the right and left of the road running from the bridge at Buckhead Creek past the church and were loaded with canister to sweep the causeways leading up to, and away from the bridge. Another possibility is the 10th Wisconsin Light Artillery, who were attached to Kilpatrick’s 3rd Division, and were also involved in the rear-guard action at the creek, and who were also armed with mountain howitzers. Using the location of these friction primers and working out the potential distance these would have been hurled from where the guns were fired, we may be able to actually identify where precisely the Union artillery pieces were placed next to the church and add these to the battle interpretation. Moreover, these small copper pieces of conflict also indicate that there is quite a lot of integrity of the battlefield surviving.

Q. You posted on social media the discovery of buck and ball loads (left). What are those?

A. We found two, possibly three pieces of shot from buck and ball loads. Buck and ball loads were essentially two or more .32-caliber shot loaded into a paper cartridge with a .69-caliber ball. When fired, it had the effect of a shotgun, spreading the lethality of impact across a wider target.

Both of our shot has banding from the barrel of the firearm, and impressions from the .69-caliber ball, which is how we know they’ve been fired, since shot can only pick up those alterations from contact when it goes semi-molten from the powder charge when fired.

Wheeler himself requested buck and ball cartridges to be sent to Millen for his resupply, and when Sherman’s army took Savannah at the end of the campaign, part of the captured Confederate munitions included a total of 11,500 buck and ball cartridges.

Q. What types of equipment were used during the school?

A. We used exclusively metal detecting. There are several potential earthwork features that might be ad hoc Union fortification -- rifle pits, a potential tiny lunette -- that we need to return to and examine with GPR (ground-penetrating radar).

Q. Regarding open and public days, any particular questions or themes raised by visitors?

A. One of the consistent themes raised is how heavily metal detected the area has been in the past, and how surprised they were that were finding items. And also a deep appreciation for us working in the area, and raising the profile of both the battlefield, and the church. Despite its great historical importance, it’s not listed on the National Register (of Historic Places), and part of the final reporting of this project will be to nominate the church itself to the National Register as historically significant.

Dr. McNutt with visitors to the excavation site (Camp Lawton Archaeological Project)

Q. I imagine is analysis is to come, but do you have any takeaways from what was found/observed during the five weeks? Anything become clearer about the fighting around the church?

A. I think we’ve likely pretty much confirmed that we uncovered evidence of the 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry’s actions at Buckhead Creek. They were a regiment who served in the 2nd brigade of General Kilpatrick’s 3rd Division. Originally, the entire 5th Ohio formed the rear guard, dispersing Confederate attempts to cross the bridge over the creek with canister shot from two 12 pounder mountain howitzers from Company G commanded by Capt. John Pummill.

John Pummill may be individual at left with 5th Ohio howitzer (Library of Congress)

At noon on November 28 , 1864, they opened fire at the charging Confederates charging over the bridge and ‘when the smoke of [their] discharge cleared away’ the causeways were swept clean. Co D of the 5th Ohio destroyed the bridge, but Wheeler himself said his command used the pews from Buckhead Creek Church to rebuild it.

The 5th Ohio began a slow withdrawal to join Kilpatrick at Reynolds' (Bellevue) Plantation, leaving the 3rd battalion consisting of companies E, I, H, and K lead by Capt. (Alexander) Rossman to defend the rear at the creek crossing. Finally, only Company K was left, fighting dismounted as skirmishers. By this point in the war, Company K held only 61 men, who tenaciously held off Wheeler’s forces. And this accords well with what we’re uncovering in the archaeological record. Contrary to popular belief, only three regiments in Kilpatrick’s entire 3rd division were armed with Spencer repeating rifles. All the rest possessed either Springfield rifle muskets, or carbines of various effectiveness.

The 5th Ohio, which is our most likely candidate for the troops whose positions we’re investigating, were armed with Joslyn carbines at the start of their service, transitioning to Burnsides and then Sharps. As well as the standard issue Colt Army 1860 .44-caliber revolver, most importantly for our purposes, all of these carbines used top hat style percussion caps to ignite their breech loaded cartridges -- the exact style we’re finding in abundance, spaced at regular intervals facing the still visible causeway, strongly indicating a skirmish line. Potentially, the line of Company K. I think we’ve got really good evidence for the position of at least one of the 5^th Ohio’s artillery pieces, and accompanying skirmish line. (Damaged percussion cap in photo)

Q.  What do you think students most experienced/learned at this field school?

A. I think we’ve made a very good start to confirming the location of portions of the Buckhead Creek battle lines, and this is something that future work will only develop and refine. Most importantly, I think we’ve clearly demonstrated that portions of the creek battle site have really good archaeological integrity, with surviving artifacts, battle lines and detritus from the action, despite the extensive metal detecting activity in the area. This is incredibly important for these aspects of the conflict that spun off from Sherman’s March to the Sea, given that the battle of Waynesboro, and so many other of the smaller skirmish sites have vanished under development and urban expansion. I think this publicity and confirmation of intact historic terrain and battlefield material should help heighten the visibility of the battle, and encourage tourism to Jenkins County to witness a landscape in very good condition for visualizing one of the last major battles in Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Dr. McNutt (back row, left) with members of the summer field school team

Our students learned how important this local history is to the people of Jenkins County, and how it intersects with heritage tourism and real world impact. And of course, they also learned the value of hard work in 111 degree heat, and how much team work and strict scientific approaches are necessary to uncovering the past. Most of our percussion caps were in areas that were untouched because they covered over with extensive modern garbage, and it’s only through dedication and discipline that we uncovered them.

Moreover, I think the battle at Buckhead Creek Church really drove home to the students the concept of the Civil War as the first industrialized war, with a stark contrast between black powder muzzle loaders and buck and ball loads utilized by the Confederates, and breech-loading carbines and lever action repeaters and pistols with cased ammunition being used by the Union.

Archaeology students find likely evidence of a brief cavalry skirmish in southern Georgia during Sherman's March to the Sea

A Spencer repeating rifle casing and a toe tap with nails found during recent
excavation near Millen, Ga. (Courtesy of Camp Lawton Archaeological Project)

Archaeology students at a Georgia university have found artifacts that might derive from a skirmish between Union and Confederate cavalry during Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Ryan McNutt, assistant professor of historical archaeology at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, said recent field work yielded fired casings from a Spencer repeating rifle and from a likely Allen & Wheelock .32 Rim fire side hammer revolver, a fired percussion cap, toe caps from footwear and a bridle rosette that matches types used by Union cavalry.

McNutt heads up the school’s Camp Lawton Archaeological Project, which for several years has been researching the remains of a Confederate prison camp that was in operation for several weeks in fall 1864.

In 2020, the university was awarded a $116,247 grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program to document and evaluate the archaeological integrity of two skirmish sites near the end of Sherman's campaign in Georgia: Buck Head Creek and Lawton (Lumpkin's) Station.

“Both of these conflicts occurred as the Confederacy attempted to tactically slow, or at least constrain, Sherman’s inexorable approach to southeast Georgia,” McNutt wrote in an email to the Picket.

Round believed to be from .32-caliber rimfire revolver (Camp Lawton Project)

The artifacts were found in the past month near the site of Lawton Station, a Dec. 4 clash that followed fighting at Buck Head Creek. Lawton Station had served the prison camp, which closed a few weeks before these skirmishes.

The Battle of Buck Head Creek on November 28, 1864, involved U.S. Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick’s and Confederate Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry forces. It took place across what are now Jenkins and Burke counties, a fighting Union withdrawal north from the area around the still-standing Buck Head Creek Church, through Reynold’s Plantation across the course of a day and over approximately three miles of period roads, McNutt said.

Kilpatrick was in the area to destroy railroad between August and Millen and burn a trestle. Another objective was to release the Camp Lawton prisoners, but Union forces discovered they had been moved to other sites. Federal forces were able to destroy a mile of track.

Gens. Judson Kilpatrick and Joseph Wheeler

On the 28^th, Wheeler “almost captured Kilpatrick, and pursued him and his men to Buck Head Creek. As Kilpatrick's main force crossed the creek, one regiment, supported by artillery, fought a rearguard action severely punishing Wheeler and then burned the bridge behind them,” says a National Park Service summary of the fighting. “Wheeler soon crossed and followed, but a Union brigade behind barricades at Reynolds's Plantation halted the Rebels' drive, eventually forcing them to retire.”

The main body of Sherman’s army, notably the 14^th and 20^th corps, approached Millen days later and engaged with Rebel cavalry.

According to McNutt, Capt. S.P. Dobbs and the 9^th Alabama Cavalry burned a bridge at Buck Head Creek Church and fell back to Lawton Station, “where they sheltered under fire for a period before withdrawing into Screven County toward Beaver Dam Creek.” (Lawton Station/Depot is where Federal prisoners were brought to the POW camp a couple months before.)

Front and back of bridle rosette (Camp Lawton Project)

The professor believes some of the Lawton Station fighting occurred with the boundaries of Magnolia Springs State Park, meaning it is protected. Much of the prison site, particularly the section where the guards lived, is inside the park. The Union prisoners lived in an area that is now federal property.

Georgia Southern students used Lidar, a remote sensing method, at the Lawton Station area and will do so again when they get to Buck Head Creek this summer. The aim of the project is to document any surviving above-ground indications of Lawton Station, field fortifications from Buck Head Creek, and historic roads, structures, houses, bridges that would have been used by both Confederate and Union forces throughout both battlefields.

McNutt believes the Lidar found what is believed to be the site of Lawton Station.

Students used metal detectors on an old road that went from the station, past Confederate barracks and the stockade to a larger road that goes north toward Augusta. This is where the artifacts were found.

“This would have been the retreat route of Captain Dobb's Confederate regiment, and the (pursuit) route of the Union cavalry,” McNutt wrote.

POW Robert Knox Sneden's map of prison (Library of Congress)

Beyond the artifacts mentioned above, the project found at Lawton Station “material culture remnants that are more ambiguous, but might be Union in origin.” That includes bits of saddlery and horse tack elements, “implying a greater presence of horse-mounted troops than were stationed at Lawton by the Confederates when it was operating as a prison camp,” McNutt said.

“These are all tantalizing bits of material culture that suggest we're looking at an edge of the skirmish, or at least an area where Union forces were firing at something or someone further along the road. As we progress through the spring field school, we'll fill this picture in more as we finish our search grid, and move up the road to investigate with another systematic metal detector survey the site of Lawton Station itself.”

McNutt concedes there is commingling of artifacts from the operation of the prison camp and the December skirmish. The survey has taken place on the edge of Rebel barracks and what may be an open parade ground.

“But the Spencer and .32-cal rimfire round are really only going to come from Union cavalry, given the Confederacy's inability to manufacture cased ammunition, especially with the copper shortage. I'm pretty confident in saying at a minimum, the Spencer and the .32 round are specific to some kind of engagement, and the bridle rosette is likely to come from that as well.”

“We have a few other ferrous items that I need to investigate in more detail, but a few are potential gun furniture, and there is a possible carbine sling bolt. So in short, there is some comingling, but these items range from being certainly not Confederate in origin, to being ambiguous, and possibly Confederate or Union.”

The professor said Kilpatrick sent troopers to Lawton in late November, but a major did not report any fighting. “I suspect given as deep as they were in Wheeler's turf, with extended (and uncertain) supply lines, conservation of ammunition would have been enforced, so they're unlikely to have just rode into the barracks area guns blazing.

“The more likely possibility is that these are items from that December cavalry skirmish -- but we need more information to be sure, and hopefully we'll know more as we finish up our search area.”

(At left is an adjustable buckle found by metal detector.)

In the meantime, the Camp Lawton Archaeological Project is contacting landowners in the area of Buck Head Creek to obtain permission to do field work there in the summer.

This field work will continue into 2022. McNutt says landowners, anyone interested in volunteering and those who might have collections of artifacts and would like him to take a look should contact him at rmcnutt@georgiasouthern.edu. 

How does your garden grow? Chicago home yields Minie ball during search for more Camp Douglas artifacts, features

Recent dig at residence in a series of townhouses (Michael Gregory)

Archaeologists usually aren’t welcome on private property. But Michael Gregory and some colleagues proved to be the exception when a Chicago homeowner allowed them to excavate in a back yard garden late last month.

The resident had visited one of a half dozen such digs at nearby John J. Pershing Magnet School for Humanities on Calumet Avenue. He talked with Gregory and others who are looking for further evidence of a Federal military training center and prison camp known as Camp Douglas.

“’I have a garden in the back yard. You are welcome to excavate it,’” Gregory recalls the homeowner telling him. After working out details, Gregory and about a dozen others worked at the Bronzeville neighborhood residence on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30.

“As we dug down to the camp deposit level, we did find a number of interesting artifacts -- gilded ceramic sherds, milk bottles, ceramic doll parts, a toy train engine, a Navy insignia clasp, a burned book, canning jar parts,” the archaeologist told the Picket. The items were most likely dumped in the early 20^th century.

(Courtesy of Michael Gregory)

And there was a little pay dirt in the single rectangular hole dug into a vegetable garden: A .58-caliber Minie ball, about 75 centimeters (30 inches) down, a depth where they were expecting to find Camp Douglas materials.

The Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation and volunteers are trying to find precise locations of camp features in an urban area that has seen extensive development in the past century, and where much of history is covered by miles of pavement and buildings. 

They are stymied by the fact that nothing from the massive Union facility is still standing.

But there have been some successes. Foundation official David Keller told the Picket a couple years back that the 2012 discovery of the camp headquarters foundation was an important find.

The crew worked last week under overcast skies and in mid-40s temperatures. They were cheered and fortified by the homeowner’s hospitality: A warm fire and hot soup.

“I am hoping the Minie ball is not our only artifact,” said Gregory as he discussed plans for a return to the home in the spring to dig in three more locations. The work at the 1880s, two-story home was the first Camp Douglas excavation on private property.

One bullet, even for just two days’ work, doesn’t seem much, but it is helping the foundation in its effort to publicize the camp’s story and bring possible protection to the 60 acres by having it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The latter is a lengthy process and has rigorous requirements. The Chicago City Council passed a resolution endorsing approval of that designation.

Camp Douglas originally served as a Union training facility for about 40,000 soldiers – including African-Americans -- being rushed to the front. Much of the site was converted to a prison camp for 26,000 Confederates. About 4,000 Rebels died at the prison.

Andrew Leith, who is assisting the foundation and works for the Chicago Cultural Alliance, said the significance of Camp Douglas is on par with Andersonville National Historic Site, home to Camp Sumter, a Confederate POW camp, in central Georgia.

“Right in our back yard we have one of the most notorious prisoner-of-war camps from the Civil War,” Leith told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Confederate POWs at Camp Douglas (Library of Congress)

The prison’s 200 structures went down when the site was dismantled in December 1865. Camp Douglas largely faded into history. The rural tract soon became part of Chicago's rapid growth that drew hundreds of thousands of African-Americans during the Great Migration more than a century ago.

While the ongoing excavations  – most on the school grounds -- have largely found items produced after the Civil War, experts and volunteers have recovered Minie balls, a Union cap pin, smoking pipes, a haversack J-hook, grommets, a spread-eagle button, an 1859 penny and other Camp Douglas items.

Gregory, who formerly was an assistant professor at DePaul University, said the foundation met two goals in the recent excavation: It found materials (the bullet) from the camp and determined that the soil was “intact,” or undisturbed by significant development.

He said the discovery of dark, circular stains in the pit may be evidence of fish beds in what was once a marshy area. “We have seen these stains in other units at Pershing School, and when seen there, they certainly defined undisturbed deposits.”

Sketch of the camp (National Archives)

The team believes the home site was little disturbed beyond construction of a basement. “No one has come in there or taken a bulldozer, grader or shovels and really mucked up the lower deposit,” said Gregory. “We are seeing a fairly intact level of the camp.”

The home is just to the east of what’s believed to have been the location of Confederate barracks at Camp Douglas. While Gregory and other haves found a trench and other ground features that may be indicative of construction on a small part of the Civil War camp, they don’t know exactly where in the presumed barracks area they are digging.

Thus far, the archaeological effort in Chicago’s South Side has not found any posts that define the stockade wall. “That would be our dream,” said Gregory.

The barracks in the POW area rested on brick piers, experts believe. Gregory theorizes the buildings were carted off months after the war ended and the piers knocked down. “If we could find a pier than we can begin to understand where we are excavating.”

Previous find (Courtesy CDRF)

The Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation (CDRF) wants to show state and federal officials that enough of the site – even underground – remains to consider it worthy of recognition and a protective designation. Gregory said he has done Google overlays over old fire insurance maps, and the result shows many sites have not been disturbed in recent years.

“I suspect between 35 to 50 percent of the camp area has a moderate to high potential to reveal intact camp deposits,” he said.

Archaeology is an exacting science, and field work and analysis take time.

“It’s not as ‘Indiana Jones’ as a lot of us would like to portray it to be,” Leith told the Chicago paper. “It’s tedious and methodological.”

(M. Gregory)

The foundation hopes to return to the home next spring, and perhaps dig in grassy rights of way – areas that are not covered by concrete. Getting access to an area to excavate is challenging.

Gregory said the homeowner was pleased with the archaeological project, including cleanup that put top soil back in place.

“I think they were happy history is there and they are letting us get to it.”

Camp Lawton: Public welcome Friday to pitch in on excavation, learn prison's history

POW Robert Knox Sneden's map of Lawton shows the fort in the upper left, but the map is reversed. (Library of Congress)

Have a hankering to use a metal detector or take part in an archaeological excavation?

Friday’s “Public Day” at Magnolia Springs State Park near Millen, Ga., will allow visitors to get their hands dirty at the site of a large Civil War prison.

Ryan McNutt, who oversees Georgia Southern University’s Camp Lawton project, said students will be working just east of Fort Lawton, the Confederate earthworks that defended against attack on the camp and as a warning to prisoners.

“The public is welcome to participate however they want,” said McNutt. “They can try their hand at metal detecting survey, and excavating the hits, or assisting with excavating our open 1x2 meter test unit, which has some interesting features in it.”

Visitors also can see 3D printed artifacts or talk with Nina Raeth, whose ancestor was a Federal POW at Lawton, which operated for six weeks in late 1864. Many of the POWs were transferred to the site from Camp Sumter, also known as Andersonville.

GSU students have been working on two large grids east of the fort to see whether there is any sign of Confederate activity or occupation.

One of two brass harmonica reeds found at Lawton (GSU)

“The Confederate side of the story is largely unknown from an archaeological standpoint, and the area we're surveying to the east of the fort would be an ideal location for rifle pits, potential camp sites and so on,” said McNutt.

The 10,000 Federal prisoners were to the west and across a creek, on a hillside that later became a federal fish hatchery. That side of Camp Lawton is on property managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The project has located Civil War period cut nails, a buckle from a horse harness and other items near Fort Lawton.

“We've also found good evidence of the land around the fort being used for hunting during the 1890s to 1900s, with numerous shotgun shell bases turning up, all with head stamps that date solidly to the period between 1890-1902,” McNutt told the Picket.

“None of the artifacts we've recovered are really military in nature, aside from a possible cone cleaner. But it is adding to the story of Camp Lawton, both during its occupation, and what it was used for afterwards.”

Previous excavations on the prisoner side of the camp have yielded hundreds of Civil War artifacts that help illustrate daily life. Officials have a good idea of where the stockade walls were erected, having found some post remains.

Friday’s public day is from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Magnolia Springs State Park. Entrance to the park is $5 for parking or free with a park pass. Sponsors are Georgia Southern University, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Look for tents after the attendant’s hut and a volunteer will take you to the work area.

Georgia's Camp Lawton: Archaeology students back on POW site to unlock mysteries

Work several years ago in presumed barracks area (GSU photo)

After a year and a half absence, archaeology students are back on the site of a Civil War prison near Millen, Ga. Their prime objective this year is to locate more evidence of the structures and features used by Confederate troops to guard 10,000 Federal soldiers.

Ryan McNutt, assistant professor of historical archaeology at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, has been teaching newer students the proper use of metal detectors in the dappled light of Camp Lawton.

“For spring, our initial focus is on potential rifle pits around the earthworks of Lawton. This may expand to the potential barracks area, depending on progress and what we discover around the fort,” said McNutt.

The Confederate camp broke into the news in 2010 when federal, state and campus officials announced that its location had been confirmed and the site already was yielding a trove of artifacts. Lawton was only open for about six weeks in autumn 1864. It held POWs moved from Andersonville and other sites as Union troops moved into central and south Georgia after taking Atlanta.

A major challenge is the lack of photos and plans of the camp, and archaeologists working the site know very little about the location of Confederate structures.

McNutt met last year with officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources about long-term plans for surveying and excavating the pristine site.

Prisoner map of Camp Lawton (Library of Congress)

Why two agencies? The federal prisoners were in a stockade that extended to a hillside that later became part of a now-closed fish hatchery. The Rebel captors were based on the other side of a spring, in what is now Magnolia Springs State Park.

Field school students this spring (Jan. 13-April 28) and summer (May 15-June 16) will be focusing their efforts on the state side of the site. McNutt wants to them to concentrate on areas that may contain remnants of defense and support structures.

Camp Lawton was last excavated in summer 2015 by students working with then-project director Lance Greene, who left soon after for a teaching position at Wright State University in Ohio. That summer, they concentrated on the Federal area, continuing the excavation of a prisoner hut and brick oven. The gap in field work at the site from summer 2015 to this month was attributable to finding a new director and McNutt studying past analysis and plotting new and revised objectives.

Over three years, Greene and his students also excavated what may be the Confederate officers’ barracks, but were unable to identify other Rebel portions of the site, including where the enlisted men lived.

Harmonica reed found in possible barracks area (GSU photo)

Like Greene, McNutt is interested in understanding the difference in the quality of life and the relationship between prisoners and guards.

Students in the spring field school are only at Camp Lawton on Fridays. The summer session will be Monday-Friday.

“The summer field school will focus in the main on the barracks area itself, though this is tied to the information gathered this spring,” McNutt told the Picket.

Students are using metal detectors to search grids.

“If we find concentrations of period artifacts, or changes in soil color in holes where metal detector hits are excavated, these may be indicative of high-activity areas in the past, or surviving archaeological features under the plow zone. In this case, we'll examine them through small 1x1 meter units to determine what's going on,” McNutt said. “We can then continue excavating if it seems small enough to tackle for the spring field school, or record the location, photograph and map whatever is there, and then return in the summer.”

Ryan McNutt (left) explains metal detector techniques (GSU photo)

“The summer will be a mix of this metal detector survey, and excavation in 2x2 meter units of areas of interest, like a chimney fall and concentrations of potential Confederate artifacts in the barracks area initially investigated by Dr. Greene.”

Those interested will have an opportunity to witness the work or, on a few days, help out. Volunteer days are May 27, June 3 and June 10.

A public day will be held in late March or early April. McNutt said those interested can contact him to arrange a visit during either field school. “The park staff can direct any visitors to our work area, and someone will give them a tour and explain what's going on.”