A trip to the lab: It was a thrill to briefly hold a conserved Enfield rifle and see one going into a preservation tank at Georgia state park. These weapons and 18 others were found in a blockade runner wreck. The goal is to put them on exhibit

Josh Headlee prepares to place an Enfield in preservative dolution (top right); at bottom are a brass trigger guard and a piece of the wooden crate used to keep rifles in place during shipment from England (Civil War Picket photos)

There are fun days and then there are really, really fun days. Today was one of the latter.

I began my adventure by hopping into my old SUV for the leafy drive to Panola Mountain State Park near Stockbridge, Ga., below Atlanta. I was excited about finally meeting Josh Headlee, curator and historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

We have stayed in touch by phone or email for nearly 13 years about a conservation project he calls “a labor of love.”

Of course, I was equally excited about seeing the fruits of that project: Two Civil War Enfield rifles that were part of a crate of 20 lost when a Confederate blockade runner ran aground in Charleston, S.C., in 1863. South Carolina divers brought them up in the late 1980s; the artifacts eventually came to Georgia, which had larger facilities to handle them.

The conservation of the rifles last year reached a significant milestone, with the first walnut stock emerging from treatment and appearing to be doing well outside a wet environment.

I had a chance to briefly hold the rifle stock this morning before we drove over to a laboratory housed in a former golf course building. Adrian Fox, interpretive ranger at Sweetwater Creek State Park, and I had the honor of watching Headlee dip the second gun into a preservation for a two-month bath (Picket video, above).

The British-made weapons have been displayed for nearly 15 years in a 300-gallon aquarium at Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County as corrosive salts are removed. Headlee, who cleans the tank a couple times a year, chose guns 9 and 10 as the first to be treated with a preservative.

Visitors to Sweetwater Creek – about 50 miles from Panola Mountain - are a bit puzzled when they first see the aquarium, said Fox and Headlee. After all, shouldn’t it contain fish or turtles? And the mass of guns, a crate and lead lining appear to be a jumble.

Park employees tell them the gun cache is inherently interesting.

Rifles in aquarium at Sweetwater Creek State Park; below a replica used to provide context (Georgia DNR)

“It gives folks a rare glimpse to see historic preservation in action,” Fox told me. Staffers often hold a replica rifle near the tank to help them visualize what’s inside.

Conservation is a long process, so there is no timetable on when the weapons  – which have been in salt or freshwater for 163 years -- are completed. And there has been no decision on where they might be exhibited, finally free of a watery environment.

Headlee says Fort McAllister State Park below Savannah might be appropriate, given the Rebel blockade runner CSS Nashville was sunk there by the Union ironclad USS Montauk.

Blockade runner wreck served up a treasure

The Pattern 1853 Enfields were carried by the blockade runner CSS Stono and were bound for Charleston, S.C., in 1863. The rifles, stored in a wooden crate, were placed in an alternating butt-to-muzzle pattern, and blocks were used to prevent the weapons from shifting. 

The Stono, laden with precious arms, munitions and goods from Europe, ran aground on a submerged sandbar off Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor while trying to evade Federal ships.

The crate likely took a hard fall, breaking a few rifles, according to Headlee. (Picket video above and photo, right, of conserved rifle, piece of crate)

Saltwater destroyed most of the iron components, including barrels, locks and bayonets. The trigger guards, butt plates and nose caps at the end of the barrels are made of brass and are still intact.

Interestingly, the nose cap is the only metal piece still attached to the wooden stock of the treated rifle. It appears to be riveted in place and conservators don't want to risk breaking the fragile stock to remove it for treatment. 

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 treated rifle I hoisted weighed probably half of that, because much of the metal (iron) had corroded away.

The brass pieces survived. The iron, not so much

Adrian Fox and Josh Headlee with untreated rifle, gun parts and piece of crate (Picket photo)

The craftsmanship involved in the manufacture of the guns was very good, Headlee previously said. “Enfield was top quality.” It 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.

At least one of the weapons bears the mark, “T. Turner,” believed to be a Confederate inspector of the rifle. His name was on a stamped cartouche in the wood.

Iron in barrel (left) and ramrod area (right) of treated gun are gone; at center is the end of the stock where brass butt plate was attached (Picket photos; click to enlarge)

A tin and lead lining that sealed the cargo from salt air and ensured the rifles were not tampered with is in bad condition. Officials are not sure how much of that can be salvaged for display. The wooden lid to the box did survive and is resting in a freshwater tank with other components.

There is a silver lining to all of this: Components made of brass withstood the onslaught of corrosive saltwater.

Iron or steel screws holding the butt plates in place deteriorated over the years and the plates just slid off, said Headlee.

Conservators years ago found in the crate a bullet mold, tools and tampions -- cork and brass plugs inserted into the muzzle to ward off moisture. The team counted 20 tampions “in various states” of condition. 

Tampions are used on cannons and rifles to keep debris from falling into their barrels. (Picket photo, left, of tampion and other items at Panola Mountain.)

Headlee reached out to Enfield experts in England and elsewhere about the half dozen remnants of iron bayonets found stacked together. They told him bayonets normally would be shipped in a separate box.

“Why bayonets were in this crate I have no idea,” Headlee told the Picket last year. “They are all but gone. The fact we have this much is amazing.” The pieces are about an inch and a half long.

The Enfield fired a Minie ball. No ammunition was found in the crate.

A jug of preservative and a case of nerves

Headlee in 2022 selected two rifles  to be treated with a solution made by Preservation Solutions. Conservators previously 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. Results on the coffin led to use on the Enfields.

Before the chemical treatment, the rifles are kept in water, which protects their cellular structure. 

Josh Headlee pours SP-11 preserver into tank with Enfield rifle (Picket photo)

The treatment takes about two months and the rifle is turned once.

Without immersion in a preserver, pieces of wood will shrink, warp and crack.

“They could literally just fall apart,” Headlee previously told the Picket.

SP-11 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. (At left, butt plate and other components, Picket photo)

The curator has been watching the preserved rifle to see whether there is leaching, cracking or splitting of the wood. 

He has seen no problems; a white film appeared on some of the stock as it emerged from the tank, but it was successfully cleaned off, he added.

“So far, it looks good,” Headlee said during my visit.

If the second rifle does as well as the first, another two rifles will be selected for the preservation treatment, perhaps this summer. In the meantime, he will travel back to Sweetwater Creek in the coming weeks to clean the tank and inspect and care for its contents. Fox, the interpretive ranger, said the staff there is very interested in the progress of the work.

The curator concedes he was nervous when the first gun emerged from its bath, and he will probably want to babysit the second a bit, as well.

As for me, it was exciting to see the Enfield components up close, especially the wooden block (Picket video above) that held the rifles in place when they were crated more than 160 years ago. I just imagined a craftsman cutting the grooves in which the barrels rested.

Oh, what a day.

With groundbreaking, South Carolina hopes people across the country will help pay for a monument to Robert Smalls, the Black Civil War and civil rights hero

Basil Watson's rendering of the memorial (Robert Smalls Monument Commission)

The campaign to raise up to $2 million for a monument of Robert Smalls, an enslaved South Carolinian who became a Union hero after commandeering a Confederate vessel, officially gets under way Wednesday morning on the grounds of the State House.  

Officials in Columbia will hold a 9:30 a.m. ceremonial groundbreaking to kick off the Robert Smalls Monument Commission’s efforts. While the endeavor has state backing, it must be paid for through “grassroots” private dollars.

The state that was the first to secede from the United States -- and was ruled for generations by white supremacists -- will honor Smalls (below) with its first monument to a single African-American individual on the Capitol grounds.

Gov. Henry McMaster previously signed a bill setting up a commission that was tasked with coming up with a design and location for the monument. While that has been accomplished, some $1 million to $2 million must now be raised before the monument becomes reality.

At the start of the Civil War, Smalls, 23, was a pilot on the steamship CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past Charleston harbor's formidable defenses and surrendered the vessel to the Union blockade fleet. His wife and children were among those on board who gained freedom.

Smalls met with President Abraham Lincoln and lobbied him to recruit black men to serve in the Union army. The former slave served as a pilot on the ship USS Crusader.

Smalls returned to his hometown Beaufort and bought his former master’s home. After the war, he served in South Carolina’s Legislature, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served several terms.

The congressman fought against the disenfranchisement of black voters across the South, according to the American Battlefield Trust.

The groundbreaking and monument will be on the lawn in the foreground (SC Dept. of Administration)

He also fought against segregation within the military, advocated for compulsory education in South Carolina, opened a school for black children and published a newspaper, among other accomplishments.

Choosing from three finalists, the commission last year chose a statue that depicts Smalls in a three-piece suit, at the height of his power in Congress.

Artist Basil Watson of Lawrenceville, Ga., created the winning design.

The monument site is located in the northeast quadrant of the State House grounds, near the visitor entrance to the building. 

McMaster will be among the speakers at the groundbreaking. State Rep. Brandon Cox will also make remarks; at an April meeting of the Smalls commission, he said the fundraising is “going national, going real big.”

Another view of the Smalls monument area (South Carolina Dept. of Administration)

As the Post and Courier newspaper pointed out, the monument will be on a 22-acre property in Columbia dominated by Confederate memorials.

“Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton, who enslaved people, has a statue, as does Benjamin Tillman, the former governor and white supremacist whose brother George used violence and intimidation to rob Smalls of his seat in Congress before his colleagues eventually removed him from office.”

Watson’s design was straightforward, with a single likeness of Smalls, rising above panels on the base describing his service and patriotism.

One panel includes a famous line uttered by Smalls in 1895:

“My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life."

Brooke Bailey, spokesperson for the State Department of Administration, told the Picket about $41,000 has been raised so far, with some of that earmarked for marketing and publicity.

To donate to the Smalls monument, go to this page and hit the “Donate” tab.

Click Robert Smalls Monument Commission map above to see where his statue will stand (near the star, on the State House grounds in Columbia.)

As fundraising intensifies to fix up Dawkins House in Union, S.C., a university prepares to identify, learn and teach about those enslaved at Civil War landmark

Dawkins House awaiting next phase of work (Picket photo), Mary Poulton Dawkins and part of slave schedule

Mary Poulton Dawkins was many things in her 86 years, the majority of which were ensconced in a Union, S.C., home that was dubbed “The Shrubs” in honor of a family estate by the same name in her native England.

Dawkins, who in 1845 married a prominent South Carolina judge 14 years her senior, was described by relatives as headstrong and proud of her imported furniture and Queen Victoria. She was determined to see the Poultons restored to their former position of wealth and prominence, whether in the United States or England.

There was another side of the Englishwoman, however, that doesn’t project well these days.

While of the “highest culture,” Mary had a tendency toward bigotry, an observer wrote, and a paternalistic view of slavery. The 1850 federal slave schedule indicates husband Thomas Dawkins enslaved about 30 persons.

One of several fireplaces on the main floor of the dwelling; the library is nearby (Picket photo)

Following the South’s loss in the Civil War, and the Dawkins’ fortune largely gone, Mary lamented Reconstruction and the brief political power accorded to Black people.

“The negroes on the plantation had really no ill feeling, but poor ignorant creatures, they were intoxicated with the idea of power and always fond of idleness; began to steal and destroy property, scarcely a night without a burning,” Mary wrote in a memoir penned late in life. “There was no redress, no law, and the ‘Ku Klux’ was formed to frighten the negroes, so sensational, supersti­tious.”

Some 120 years after Mary’s death, the nonprofit Preservation South Carolina is raising money for the next phase of the restoration of the dilapidated Dawkins House. The dwelling is destined to become an alumni and corporate center for the University of South Carolina Union, a small campus in the heart of the Piedmont city. (Picket video below of Bill Comer of PSC)

At the same time, USC-Union is establishing a genealogical and archives course that will focus on the history of the house and its occupants and visitors, including the identification of the enslaved, who – with a few exceptions -- currently are known only by their age and gender. The goal is to offer the class this fall.

It is anticipated that the course will be open to students and Union County residents who have an interest in ancestry research and history.

Backers of the Dawkins House project have said it is important the whole history of the home – warts and all – be told. That's the aim of other sites in Union County, including Rose Hill, former home of the Gist family.

Andrew Kettler, an assistant professor of history, told the Picket the aim of the course is less about assigning blame than moving toward acknowledgement and reconciliation. He describes it as a public history course; the syllabus is still being finalized.

“We are going to run … grants this summer that focus on finding sources related to the Dawkins House,” Kettler said (left, Picket photo). “We are currently recruiting two students and will apply for that funding at the end of April. The grant students will assist with identifying materials that focus on the Dawkins House held in local archives.”

Annie Smith, director of development on the campus, said the course also will seek to identify those individuals who lived in the original structure between 1765 and the early 1800s, before Thomas Dawkins bought and expanded the residence.

Bill Comer, a Union native who is heading up the Dawkins House rehab project for Preservation South Carolina, previously said the refurbished site will provide lessons from the past once it reopens.

“Those who were slaves should be identified and recognized, just as much as the Dawkins family and their prominent guests. Going forward, people of all races and religions should pass through the Dawkins House's doors and occupy its spaces, to do good without discrimination and to learn.”

Thomas Dawkins' property is listed on two pages of the 1850 schedule (click to enlarge)

Fireplaces apparently burned more than wood

The Dawkins House is a terminus residence situated on the campus at the end of Church Street. The property is best known for several weeks in spring 1865.

Union, which is south of Spartanburg, briefly served as the capital of the state after Columbia fell to Union forces in 1865 and Gov. Andrew Magrath fled to Union.

Gov. Magrath, before leaving Columbia, got in touch with college chum Thomas Dawkins (right) about using the home and others nearby to conduct business amid the chaos.

From about Feb. 15, 1865, until early April, Magrath ran the state from the Dawkins House. He apparently worked in an informal library near the drawing room, which survives today. Chaos ruled across South Carolina.

According to histories and local legend, Magrath and his subordinates burned possibly incriminating documents and correspondence in the fireplaces. (The home served as South Carolina's capitol while the city was briefly its capital.)

Amid the panic, Mary P. Dawkins later wrote, folks in Union tried to stay upbeat.

“The young people were hopeful to the last, so when soldiers were with us music, dancing, charades, etc. made such enjoyable eve­nings, never to be forgotten. There was bon amie, a comradeship born of the situation, very fascinating and rare.”

Recollecting the great silver tea set caper

The house has had several additions and changes over the centuries (Picket photo)

Upon learning of Rebel Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Magrath and his staff raced away from Union as Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Federal troops moved in. He was eventually captured on May 25 and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Ga., until release that December. 

Magrath apparently hid a silver tea set at the Dawkins' home while he was based there. Mary Dawkins wrote the couple took the set to Mills House in Charleston after Magrath was released and they gave it to him.

The silver tea set story is covered in the book "South Carolina's English Lady," compiled and edited by the late Sarah Porter Carroll in the 1980s. You can read the text on Family Search.

Mary wrote that a few months after hostilities ended, "our servants (were) free and sought for by (Union) soldiers.” One book says she presented a paternalistic view of slavery.

Enslaved people had become a majority in Union County during the 1840s, and the area became a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity during Reconstruction.

Letters and accounts written by relatives of Mary Dawkins -- and included in Carroll's book -- suggest slaves at “The Shrubs” and any other land owned by Thomas were treated more kindly than at other plantations. But that view belies the fact the institution was inherently cruel and violent.

Widow stayed proud of her English roots

During most of their 25-year marriage, Thomas and Mary Dawkins lived the good life. They were well-known in society, had amassed a fortune and were active in local civil and social affairs. They were key supporters of the Church of the Nativity, about a half mile from their home. Mary enjoyed traveling to Charleston and Edisto Island on the Atlantic Ocean.

Things went south after 1861.

 The left rear of the house dates back to the 1760s or so (Picket photo)

“When the war closed every servant Judge and Mrs. Dawkins owned left them, with the exception of ‘Aunt Sophia,’ who showed she appreciated their many kindnesses to her by remaining loyally with them for years as their cook, then, after a long period, going out and doing private nursing,” wrote one relative, as related in Carroll’s collection.

Mary Dawkins wrote that, actually, a few other servants, as she called the enslaved, stayed faithful to the household.

She said that a few months after hostilities ended, "our servants (were) free and sought for by (Union) soldiers.” 

Thomas Dawkins died in 1870. Mary wrote of experiencing sadness after the war while she allowed several relatives to live at The Shrubs. She said she occasionally helped her former servants. Most of her extended family had remained in England, rather than move to New York as she had in the 1830s.

While left with some money when Thomas died, Mary went through it and was almost penniless when she died at 86 in November 1906. Relatives remained in the house for years.

“Mrs. Dawkins was a woman of broad and rare culture, and not so long ago compiled some very interesting reminiscences of her life,” her obituary read. “She was a charming conversationalist, and she numbered many young friends as well as older ones, who considered it a great pleasure to spend an hour in her society. In her death Union loses a gentlewoman, whose presence and quiet influence will be greatly missed.”

In the end, Mary Poulton Dawkins’ story is well-known.

Those of the enslaved in the household she managed are not. (Above, Picket photo of Bill Comer and Robert Schmitt on front porch of The Shrubs)

'The integrity will stand on its own merit'

Curtiss Hunter, tourism director for the county and a member of the Union County Community Remembrance Project (UCCRP), which documents racial violence and lynching and promotes healing through preservation, previously told the Picket restoration of the Dawkins House will boost tourism and community engagement.

Hunter (left) said its full history should be part of its interpretation. “I believe … the story of the Dawkins House should be told as authentic as there is history to prove the content. The integrity will stand on its own merit.”

Hunter’s group in 2021 put up three marker detailing racial injustices in the county. Among them was Sax(e) Joiner, who was hanged by white men just before Union fell during the Civil War. He allegedly wrote an insulting letter to a white woman and was taken from the jail by a mob.

Kettler, the professor at USC-Union, said faculty and students will turn to the census, the Union Country Museum, Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site, diaries and other papers.

“We are also accessing the University Archives, which have been in storage for a time. As well, part of the PURE grant work over the summer will be to try to find other archives in the state that might have reference to the Dawkins House and its inhabitants.”

Tour of home took me way back in time

The Picket attended a January meeting at USC-Union at which Comer and Joanna Rothell, director of outreach and preservation for Preservation South Carolina, made a pitch to area corporations and businesses to donate money for work on the Dawkins House.

I later saw the inside of the house, which has some wonderful architectural elements, timbers dating to the 1700s and windows undergoing conservation.

Comer reiterated the project will attempt to identify those who lived in or worked at the home in the 1700s and 1800s. Hopefully, he said, the team will be able to contact descendants. “We are going to do the right thing,” he told the audience.

The $300,000 state-funded Phase 1 shored up the building. (At right, Robert Schmitt, who was worked on the home's windows, shows where the spiral staircase once rose. Picket photo)

Phase 2 of the ambitious project will be much more extensive and expensive. The aim is for PSC to eventually hand over the house to the university for finishing and customization.

Rothell said Phase 2 will include:

-- Installation of new piers on concrete footings in the crawlspace;

-- Strengthening of porch, first and second floor framings, the roof system and all walls;

Rendering of the finished house, complete with landscaping (Preservation SC-USC Union)

-- Installation of the required framing for a new interior staircase where the original historic, spiral staircase was located in the central hall. This will entail strengthening the floors and walls in this area, including any necessary new footings in the crawlspace.

Name of house will honor famed black coach

PSC said they need at least $845,000 for the next phase of work. About $206,000 has been raised or been committed. Donations to the project can be made here.

“Fundraising is through personal outreach to corporations, organizations and individuals and participation in local meetings,” Comer told the Picket.

Construction could start in September or October, if enough money or promises come in.

PSC put out a fundraising brochure that includes “premier naming opportunities” for portions of the house, including the library, front porch, main hallway and the original 1700s home that was incorporated into later additions. Organizers hope one day to rebuild a spiral staircase that once joined the first and second floors.

The restored residence will be known as the Willie and Mary Jeffries’ Commons at Dawkins House. (PSC photo, right)

Willie Jeffries  played for the all-black Sims High School in Union and is the legendary former football coach of South Carolina State University. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and is a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 2023, the South Carolina High School League recognized the Sims football squad’s 96-game unbeaten streak from 1946-1954 as the longest in state history. 

According to PSC: 

"The 'Commons' represents a shared and vibrant space—one designed to bring people together. Located on the USC Union campus, it will serve as a hub for connection and collaboration, where students, faculty, and corporate partners can gather for networking, professional development, meetings, and special events. It will a place where ideas are exchanged, partnerships are formed, and innovation is fostered."

The library remains where Gov. Magrath worked in spring 1865 (Picket photo)

A cannonball found in North Myrtle Beach by a man with a metal detector likely came to shore during a recent beach nourishment project. Its story goes back to the days of Civil War blockade runners and the ships that chased them

Recovered shell (NMB); type of fuse on shell (Tyrus Tingle); pipe and bulldozer (Dylan Burnell, USACE, Charleston District)

When you’re dredging and then dumping two million cubic yards of sand – equal to 200,000 dump truck loads – onto a 26-mile stretch of shore, small objects are bound to make it through to the beach.

That appears to have been the case when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Charleston District conducted beach renourishment in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Days after that portion of the massive Grand Strand project was completed, a metal detector enthusiast found a 20-pound Civil War-era cannonball in the popular tourist destination. A Horry County Police Department bomb squad deemed the shell – which had a fuse and likely black powder inside -- to be dangerous and neutralized it.

Desirae Gostlin, a spokesperson for North Myrtle Beach police, told the Picket “dredging is our best guess” for the reason the ordnance ended up about a foot deep in front of a resort at 48^th Avenue S. and S. Ocean Boulevard.

General vicinity of shell discovery, overlaid on USACE dredging zone map

The Corps said it could not confirm the shell went through a submerged pipeline and to the beach, where other pipes dump sand and water onto the work area. Heavy equipment then shape and grade the sand.

“Discoveries of historic ordnance during beach renourishment in the Charleston District are rare, said public affairs specialist Dylan Burnell.

Artillery shells have turned up elsewhere in the Palmetto State. For example, a Parrott round was found in 2004 at a residential construction site in Murrells Inlet, below Myrtle Beach.

While news reports focused on the metal detectorist and the fate of the cannonball, I wanted to dig into (pardon the pun) the story of the shell, which clearly was in the area of Union naval operations during the Civil War.

Jim Legg, public archaeologist for the South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA), said the shell appears to be a 32-pounder that weighed between 21 and 25 pounds. The walls were thick and most likely had a U.S. Navy watercap time fuse with an adapter for a paper fuse.

Rick Simmons, author of “Defending South Carolina's Coast: The Civil War from Georgetown to Little River,” said there was no Confederate artillery in the vicinity of where the shell was presumably dredged up a few miles off North Myrtle Beach. Back then, the coastline was sparsely populated.

So it’s almost certain the ordnance is tied to Federal forces.

Their targets were the constant flow of blockade runners trying to bring desperately needed supplies to Southern ports, notably Wilmington, N.C.

The Official Records (OR) of the conflict include numerous accounts of ships capturing or sinking blockade runners such as the Argyle, James Bailey, Florida, Nicolai I, Vesta, Scotia and the Sue.

“The area from Wilmington to Charleston was quite active, and with no Confederate batteries for about 40 miles in the middle, the Union was always patrolling” near what is now called Myrtle Beach, Simmons wrote in an email.

“My guess is that it was artillery dropped from or fired by … a Union ship,” without the round exploding, he said.

Tourist can't take find back home with him

A metal detecting hobbyist from Dudley, Mass., told News 13 in Myrtle Beach he heard an unusual sound through his headset while walking near the North Beach and Beach Cove resorts on Feb. 7. A North Myrtle Beach police officer helped uncover the object and the county bomb squad was called in.

“HCPD Bomb Squad transported it to a secure, secondary location to safely neutralize it,” Horry County director of public information Thomas Bell told the Picket. “Best determination is that the cannonball dates back to 1850-1860. It was 20 lbs. with a black powder core, so it was determined to be potentially explosive.”

The finder told the local TV station he believes the shell belongs to him because he found it on public property and it has been rendered safe. (At left, authorities at the scene; photo NMB Police)

City and county officials disagreed. People cannot possess explosive devices in South Carolina without proper permits, said Gostlin.

“Although it would definitely be a cool relic to own, the cannonball was not taken home by anyone,” North Myrtle Beach Police said in a Facebook post. “Whether an item is historic or not, if it’s suspected to be explosive, it must be treated as live until professionals determine otherwise. Public safety always comes first.”

Bell said county police cannot release military munitions to the public, even upon demolition. The remains of the shell, he added, will be sent to Shaw Air Force Base.

State underwater archaeologist Jim Spirek said, unfortunately, bomb squads typically destroy ordnance if a fuse is found. “CW ordnance is quite harmless and when proper techniques are applied (they) can be ‘inerted’ safely and saved for study, display, etc.” He mentioned the conservation of scores of fused artillery shells found in the wreckage of the CSS Georgia in Savannah, Ga.

I asked Bell whether the county considered doing the same with this artillery round.

“HCPD places public safety as the highest priority when it comes to such incidents. Due to the nature of the cannonball, HCPD made the determination that disposal was the safest route,” he replied.

There weren't beachgoers back in the day

Now, back to informed speculation about the cannonball.

Spirek, who has conducted numerous studies of Civil War shipwrecks, echoed Simmons’ assertion there were no Yankee or Rebel batteries erected along this specific stretch of the South Carolina coastline.

“Perhaps a small sailing vessel was coming/in out when spotted by a Union warship on patrol that took a pot shot or two at the vessel, or even at a Confederate cavalry patrol. If dredged farther off the coast, then perhaps a shell from one of the running chases between Union blockaders and Confederate blockade runners,” the archaeologist wrote in an email.

Locations of two Rebel forts overlaid on current U.S. Geological Survey map; click to enlarge

Simmons, who has written numerous books and teaches writing and history at the Georgetown (S.C.) School of Arts and Sciences, described the wartime scenario in the region.

The Union navy shelled Fort Ward at Murrells Inlet relentlessly in late 1862 and early 1863. Above that, Fort Randall was positioned at Little River right near the North Carolina border. (Below, the Union's USS Monticello)

“In between you had a long 40-mile stretch of.....nothing. Technically, that whole area from above Georgetown to the North Carolina line is a big island, and if you think about it there are bridges that access the Grand Strand now in Georgetown, leading into Myrtle, and up at OD/North Myrtle. But at the time, it was difficult to get across as there were no real bridges.”

Only Murrells Inlet and Little River were ports, hence the two small, three-gun batteries at those locations.

“There were a few light artillery companies that floated around the district such as the Waccamaw Light Artillery and Santee Light Artillery and others, but while they did engage Union ships on occasion once they entered the rivers (such as the Black, Sampit, Pee Dee, Waccamaw), I don't recall ever seeing anything about them trying to engage Union ships along the coast,” Simmons wrote.

So that puts Federal gunfire on a blockade runner as the most likely scenario for the artifact.

Simmons first thought perhaps it was related to the long chase of the blockade runner Margaret and Jesse in 1863. The USS Nansemond and other vessels captured the vessel in the vicinity and likely opened fire. The author now says they may have nabbed the prize farther out to sea.

How the dredge may have sent round to shore

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced one day before the discovery of the artillery shell it had completed the North Myrtle Beach phase of the beach renourishment. Work on Myrtle Beach follows. (You can follow the project at this tracker)

“The $72 million project is fully funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is designed to reduce the risk to life and protect critical infrastructure behind the dunes along the Grand Strand,” the agency said.

I asked Burnell, the spokesperson for the Charleston District, to describe the process, given my curiosity about how the cannonball may have made its way ashore.

Basically, a dredge loosens sand and pumps it through a pipeline to the beach. The system transports dredged material (a mixture of sand and water) from the offshore borrow area to the shoreline.

“If an object is within the borrow area and small enough to pass through the system, it could be transported with the sand. However, we cannot confirm that this occurred in this instance,” Burnell said. (At left, another view of the shell; North Myrtle Beach Police)

At the end of the pipeline, a deflector directs the material into a temporary containment dike. Within the dike, the sand-water slurry spreads out, allowing the sand to settle while the excess water gradually drains back toward the ocean. 

After sufficient dewatering occurs, bulldozers and other heavy equipment shape and grade the sand in accordance with the project’s engineered template, restoring the beach to its designed elevation and profile.

Pipelines used to distribute sand on the shore at North Myrtle Beach (Dylan Burnell, USACE)

Burnell said the USACE wasn’t involved with the discovery of the cannonball or investigation.

Still, it has some advice.

“We appreciate the public’s vigilance and encourage anyone who encounters a suspicious object on the beach to avoid handling it and notify local authorities.”

Artillery shell after bomb squad set off small explosion to disarm (North Myrtle Beach Police)