Old number 9: Vandals and thieves tried to diminish this Civil War cannon. The weathered survivor, displayed for a decade at a Georgia battlefield, will be a star artifact at an upcoming Atlanta History Center exhibit

Key's battery howitzer at Pickett's Mill (Picket photo), number 9 on top of dented muzzle (Georgia State Parks), gun after it was recovered in Spalding County, Ga. in 2010, and artillery Capt. Thomas Key (Wikipedia); click to enlarge images

A dinged-up 12-pounder howitzer that survived numerous battles, years of vandalism and theft from a city park will be returned next month from a Georgia battlefield to the Atlanta History Center, where it will be featured in a new exhibition telling a bigger story about the Civil War.

The gun, manufactured in Boston in 1851 for the Arkansas Military Institute, has been on loan for nearly 10 years to Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site northwest of Atlanta. It’s possible it was used to mow down Federal attackers who futilely charged through a ravine toward Confederates waiting for them in strength.

“Captain Key's howitzer is one of the most important artifacts /stories we have going into the new exhibit,” Gordon Jones, senior military and historian at the AHC, wrote the Picket in a recent email. “It'll be a cornerstone of the Atlanta Campaign area, right up there with the U.S. Army wagon, Confederate flag that flew over Atlanta, Cleburne sword, plus more new acquisitions.”

Jones was referring to Confederate Capt. Thomas Key, whose Arkansas artillery battery served in the division of legendary Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne during the Atlanta Campaign.

Key's Battery flag (Wikipedia

The AHC in 2016 lent the gun to the state park as it prepared to move the “Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama painting from the city’s Grant Park to the center’s facilities in the Buckhead neighborhood (The gun, below, during its move from the AHC to Pickett's Mill).

For the AHC and history aficionados, the audacious Key and his four-gun battery are remembered for being in the thick of things in numerous 1864 Atlanta Campaign battles – Dalton, Pickett’s Mill, Peachtree Creek and Jonesboro, among others..

Yet this bronze gun has a postwar history as interesting as its service during the war. It had several postwar homes and was vandalized while displayed outside in Grant Park. Indignities included a broken cascabel, hacksaw marks and scores of indentations.

The howitzer was subsequently stolen, turning up in a county south of Atlanta.

The AHC gained custody of the weapon and had it refurbished and placed on a carriage that was built in 1936.

Thomas Bailey, who makes and restores carriages and other artillery components, recalls working on the Key howitzer, which has an artillery shell jammed into its 780-pound barrel.

“It always stood out to me how beat up it was,” said the owner of Historical Ordnance Works in Woodstock, Ga. “Somebody tried breaking it up for scrap. There were saw marks on the trunnion.” He estimates the barrel had about 60 marks from a sledgehammer.

So you can say this gun is a survivor -- from the horrors of war and the ravages of vandals.

Key and his men always in the thick of things

The Key battery howitzer was one of two cast by Cyrus Alger & Co. for the Arkansas Military Institute. The number 9 is stamped on its muzzle face and the barrel is marked with an eagle atop a globe.

At Chickamauga, in September 1863, his superiors lauded Key for his gallantry and effectiveness, saying that in the fiercest part of the struggle he ran his battery by hand to within 60 yards of the enemy's lines.

Key and his cannons played a large part in the Confederate victory at Pickett’s Mill on May 27, 1864. Cleburne ordered Key to place two guns to the right oblique to enfilade the ravine. 

It’s uncertain whether number 9 was one of those two, but it certainly was among the four battery guns there.

Federal troops under Brig. Gen. William Hazen charged uphill in their attempt to take the top of a ridge. Key’s howitzers were ready for them. The battery fired about 182 rounds of spherical case and canister in two hours.

The Federal army suffered about 1,600 casualties at the battle, compared to 500 for the South. (At right, volunteer Michael Hitt at Pickett's Mill ravine in 2023, Picket photo)

On July 25, 1864, Key’s Battery was issued Napoleons captured from the Federals during the Battle of Atlanta and number 9 was sent to the Macon Arsenal. The Napoleons were considered a step up.

In his postwar book, Key wrote he regretted parting with number 9, which had been with his men at Perryville, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church,  Peachtree Creek and other battles.

“So it cannot be thought strange that I regret having separated from my command a gun that has been my companion under such trying and bloody circumstances.”

The howitzer made a lot of stops after the war

A 2016 newsletter produced by the Georgia Battlefields Association tells what happened to number 9 after the war:

At war’s end, the gun became property of the U.S. Army and was sent to the Washington Arsenal.

In 1880, upon a request on behalf of the state militia, number 9 was one of four guns (including two originally belonging to the Georgia Military Institute) sent to Rome, Ga. In 1887, Atlanta requested four obsolete guns for display in Fort Walker in Grant Park; the Rome guns were selected. (Fort Walker is not far from the old Cyclorama building).

“Over the years, the gun was vandalized: initials scratched, dented, pieces broken off, overturned, etc.,” according to the GBA newsletter, authored by Charlie Crawford, who then served as GBA president.

Michael Hitt, a volunteer historian at Pickett’s Mill and Civil War researcher, provided the Picket two vintage post cards (below) showing the gun when it was at Fort Walker.

In one photograph, the barrel lies on the ground and the left cheek of the gun carriage is heavily damaged.

“Maybe a tree or part of one fell on it,” Hitt said. “The other image shows it remounted, with a big dent on the muzzle, at an 11 o'clock position.”

Something unexpected found at residence

In the 1980s, Hitt – then a suburban Atlanta police officer -- restored three artillery pieces languishing at Fort Walker, part of the South’s defensive works in Atlanta. But vandals continued to damage the guns.

“There’s a lot of history connected with that fort,” Hitt, lamenting the lack of city protection, told The Atlanta Journal in 1984 (article below). “It’s like they abandoned it.”

Things somehow got worse.

“In 1985, all the guns were removed from Fort Walker,” according to the GBA. “Number 9 was removed from its carriage and displayed on a Grant Park monument, from which it was stolen in summer 1993.”

In February 2010, a tip about stolen goods led sheriff’s deputies to a Spalding County house, where they found stolen items, including a crate with a damaged cannon barrel inside. The whole affair was covered by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Hitt at that time identified the gun as number 9 and said it was part of the Helena Artillery, also known as Key’s Battery. It was part of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

While a small debate ensued on whether the gun belonged to Georgia, Arkansas or the U.S. Army, the gun eventually was reclaimed by Atlanta. According to the GBA newsletter, it sat in a crate in the foyer of the old Cyclorama building for a few years.

In 2014, the AHC struck a deal with the city to restore and relocate the giant painting, locomotive Texas and other artifacts in the Cyclorama building to a new wing in Buckhead. That meant the howitzer would move, too.

What a long strange trip it's been for gun

After it was cleaned up, the Key howitzer was shown off in the visitor center at Pickett’s Mill, which is in Paulding County, just northwest of Atlanta.

John Nash, head of the Friends of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield, recalls taking his cannon trailer to the AHC to take the gun and carriage to Pickett’s Mill. The carriage was among those built by Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees in the 1930s when the guns were at Fort Walker.

Now the gun is heading to Buckhead. (Editor's note: I learned about the upcoming move from a Facebook post on The Atlanta Campaign History and Discussion Group.)

The Atlanta History Center in May closed its longtime Civil War exhibit, “Turning Point,” to make way for two new galleries that will feature breathtaking artifacts and a broader discussion of issues that engage the republic to this day: our belief systems, victory, defeat, reconciliation and the evolving meaning of freedom.

Museum officials said they will announce the confirmed name of the new Civil War era exhibition and an opening date in the next week or so.

AHC CEO Sheffield Hale with Union 20th Corps wagon that traveled near what is now the AHC (Picket photo)

Some people on social media had expressed worry the gun would go back into storage at the AHC. Or they advocate it should stay at Pickett's Mill.

Josh Headlee, curator and historic preservation specialist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which oversees state parks, said the weapon’s association with the battle made it a compelling artifact there.

“Rather than it sit in storage for all that time, the AHC was generous enough to reach out to us about the loan,” said Headlee. “Since the Key’s Battery played a prominent role in that battle, it has been a wonderful temporary addition to the Pickett’s Mill exhibits. However, Key’s Battery played an important role in the battles for Atlanta as well, so it’s just at home in their collection as it is ours.”

Hitt, a board member with the Pickett’s Mill friends group, agrees.

“I was able to get the Key battery howitzer (loaned) out from the AHC several years ago with the knowledge that it would be returned when it was needed for a display. Well, it is going to be part of a display now at the AHC and I don't have an issue with it. The gun's Atlanta story is just as interesting as the Pickett's Mill story.”

So there’s the story – for now – about old number 9. Living historians occasionally fire a reproduction Key’s Battery gun at Pickett’s Mill. The next event is scheduled for Jan. 17.

Those wanting to see the original gun at Pickett’s Mill before it leaves have only a few weeks. It will be back in Atlanta some time in February

The old GBA newsletter said the artifact might win a contest for most interesting story. “Go see the gun and marvel at its long, strange trip.”

Where sabers crossed and 'Stonewall' Jackson roamed: A burgeoning Virginia state park prepares to eventually manage Brandy Station, other Culpeper battlefields

Cunningham Farm wall remnants at Brandy Station (Chuck Laudner/American Battlefield Trust)

The growing staff at Virginia’s Culpeper Battlefields State Park is learning more about the power and potential of Civil War properties it will manage once they are transferred from the American Battlefield Trust.

An office manager and park ranger (maintenance) were recently hired, said Kim Wells, spokeswoman at Virginia State Parks, and a law enforcement ranger will be added soon. Park manager Drew Gruber is leading the group.

The ABT, Friends of Culpeper Battlefields, the Brandy Station Foundation, Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield and other groups have worked for decades to purchase and interpret a cluster of imperiled Civil War battlefields in Culpeper County. The sites are Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Kelly’s Ford, Rappahannock Station and Hansbrough's Ridge.

While the state park opened 18 months ago, development is relatively still in its early stages. The park staff is working from the Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield information center at 9465 General Winder Road, Rapidan (photo below).

“We are already talking in detail with visitors, tour guides (including Culpeper Battlefield Tours), friends’ groups, municipal offices and more to assess what they enjoy about the properties now, their aspirations, the efficacy of existing programming,” Wells said in a recent email. “One thing is certain. Culpeper will continue to offer a unique battlefield experience where you can explore on horseback or paddle between battles.”

The ABT – which will be chief steward of the properties until 2027 -- plans to make several additional donations to the Commonwealth over the next couple years, said Jim Campi, chief policy and communications officer.

The Culpeper Battlefields State Park team has not started the master planning process, but it will be helped by friends groups and the ABT, which oversaw a cultural landscape report at Brandy Station, site of a mammoth cavalry clash in 1863 that signaled the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign.

Preliminary results of the Brandy Station report were unveiled to the public in late June, according to a news article by the Culpeper Times (InsideNOVA).

A staffer with MIG, a landscape architectural firm, said the study identified traces of roads, artillery and gun pits, family cemeteries and archaeological sites -- all of which need further study.

Stone walls marking the edges of fields and property boundaries on the battlefield were believed to have been built by enslaved people, according to the speaker. (At right, ABT map of parcels at Brandy Station; click to enlarge). One wall separated the Cunningham and Green farms.

Campi told the Picket this study focused on a portion of the Brandy Station battlefield, including St. James Church and Elkwood. A final version of the report viewed by the Picket cites concerns about unauthorized relic hunting at the site.

The Picket has reached out multiple times to MIG for comment and visual images but has not heard back.

The various friends groups are hosting tours and “working on programs and projects across the breadth of the properties which are slated to transfer to the Commonwealth,” said Wells. No state employees are currently handling interpretation.

She said the new park ranger in charge of maintenance will be developing a stewardship plan and will work alongside three part-time maintenance rangers to ensure the properties are well maintained and cared for.

Interpretation at Brandy Station's Fleetwood Hill sector (American Battlefield Trust)

“While we’ve been focused on ordering furniture, tools, equipment and more, we’ve found time to explore the properties owned by the American Battlefield Trust which are set to transfer to the Commonwealth in the years to come. There is a lot of ground to cover as we learned about the park’s six Civil War battles, Revolutionary War history and its Civilian Conservation Corp history, too,” wrote Wells.

The master planning process will likely begin once all acquired parcels have been transferred to the state. It will take a few years to complete.

I asked the spokesperson about which of the sites are vulnerable or need extra protection.

“State Park Rangers conduct regular assessments of their parks to identify potential vulnerabilities and to determine whether additional protective measures are needed for sensitive natural, cultural and historic resources at these sites. Actions are handled on a case-by-case basis, and the outcomes of such reviews may or may not be publicly shared. There are no new updates regarding Culpeper Battlefields State Parks in relation to this matter.”

Click map to get a closer view of planned state park properties (American Battlefield Trust)

The ABT previously said it and other groups worked together to stave off much of the commercial development that would take in battlefield land.

“At various times, pieces of land that we are now gifting to the Commonwealth of Virginia were slated to become housing tracts, industrial parks, water retention and management areas — even a Formula One racetrack,” it says.

In the meantime, visitors can walk on several trails and read ABT and Civil War Trails signs.

“We are always going to be involved,” said Campi. “The park is not done yet. There is more land to acquire.”

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)

Colt revolving rifle bullets fired by Illinois troops among hundreds of artifacts recovered at Arkansas' Prairie Grove battlefield park

Recovered round from Colt revolving rifle (Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park)

Colt revolving rifle (center) -- Hmagg, Wikipedia

Removal of underbrush at the epicenter of a ferocious battle in northwest Arkansas has allowed archaeologists to recover about 400 Civil War artifacts, including spent bullets fired from innovative Colt revolving rifles.

The Colt Model 1855 was used by two flanking companies of the 37^th Illinois Infantry at the Battle of Prairie Grove on Dec. 7, 1862. The design was similar to Colt revolvers – with a rotating cylinder – and the weapon became a repeating rifle by adding a stock and barrel. 

While it had mixed success during the war, the rare rifle was largely effective at Prairie Grove and two other prominent battles.

Experts said the location of seven recently recovered Colt bullets may alter maps of the precise position where the regiment fought during a Federal charge on Confederate artillery and infantry at the Archibald Borden house. Its commander, Lt. Col. John Black, would receive a Medal of Honor for his leadership during the battle.

(Arkansas Archeological Survey)

Staff with the Fayetteville office of the Arkansas Archeological Survey conducted the survey at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park in late February and the first two weeks of March. The coronavirus pandemic has halted the work and analysis of the artifacts. (June 7 update: Work recently resumed)

The four acres being studied in front of the Borden house are believed to never have been touched by metal detectors before. Mike Evans, station assistant with the survey, said he has worked many sites, but never with this many concentrated artifacts. “This area was wooded and fairly inaccessible. We wanted to take a look at the heart of the battle.”

“This is as central to that battle as you can get,” he told the Picket this week. The slope in front of the house, an orchard and other parts of the farm were the scene of two assaults each by Federal and Confederate troops.

The survey found numerous bullets, artillery shell fragments, friction primers, casings and canister. Interestingly, few personal items, such as buttons or insignia, were recovered.

“It is rich. It looks pretty thick,” Evans said of the artifacts, which he expects to number 1,000 when the crew eventually can return to the park to complete the survey. “And you are seeing little clusters. You are seeing a hot spot down the hill.”

(Note: Officials with the park and survey, which are partnering in the survey, emphasize that metal detecting and removal of artifacts from Prairie Grove by the public is prohibited.)

Confederate troops under Maj. Gen. Thomas Hindman squared off against the men of Union Brig. Gens. James Blunt and Francis Herron at Prairie Grove. While the fighting ended in somewhat of a draw, the Rebels withdrew from the field, giving the Union a strategic victory. Northwest Arkansas and Missouri would remain under Federal control for the rest of the conflict.

Casualties totaled about 2,700.

Park wanted terrain to look like 1862

Sampling of items from Prairie Grove (Arkansas Archeological Survey/AAS)

Bormann fuse for artillery (Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park)

The clearing of underbrush and thinning of trees below the Borden hill and along a foot trail was the impetus for the archaeological work, said Matt Mulheran, park interpreter at Prairie Grove since autumn 2018.

The growth “had not allowed anyone to get in there with a metal detector. All of those artifacts were there in pristine condition waiting to tell a story,” he said. The park for years had wanted to do the clearing project, and the interpreter got the ball rolling last year.

Official reports and soldier accounts showed the modern terrain was not accurate to the battle.

“That hillside was very open and the Borden family had taken a lot of time clearing the underbrush,” said Mulheran. “We wanted to get back to that landscape.”

Minie ball with impact damage, dropped.58-caliber and Enfield round (Prairie Grove BSP)

The Bordens lived on a large farm and were not aware of what was to come on the morning of Dec. 7, 1862. "A Confederate officer knocks on their door and tells them they have to flee.”

They rushed to a neighbor’s resident, where the families huddled in a cellar. The Bordens emerged after the fighting to find their home burned by Federal troops. Caldonia Borden Brandenburg years later spoke of the loss of livestock and stored food.

“All of the kinfolks and neighbors gave us food, clothing and bedding and household goods that they could spare, to help us get started again,” she said. “As soon as it was safe for us kids to go on the battle fields, we went and picked up clothes, canteens, blankets and anything we found to use. We had to put everything in boiling water to kill the “grey backs” [body lice] …”

Around 1870, the Borden family rebuilt the distinctive yellow home on the same site. They eventually moved west, Mulheran said, and others farmed the land until the 1940s or 1950s. The house eventually fell into disrepair. “There were trees growing out of the porch.”

Borden house in 1976 (Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park)

The property was acquired by the state in 1979 and rehabilitated.

Volunteers and a Bobcat with a mulching attachment have removed the undergrowth and the park will continue tree thinning and grooming this summer.

“It has come a long way in the time I have been here,” said Mulheran. “People can (now) see it just as the soldiers saw it.”

Some items came from filming of miniseries

Complicating the archaeological dig has been the presence of artillery and long gun components associated with Civil War reenactors who took part in events at the state park over the years.

Officials believe some of the recovered items date back to the filming of the 1982 television miniseries, “The Blue and the Gray,” which starred Stacy Keach and Gregory Peck and was based on Bruce Catton’s book.

Co-producer Harry Thomason spoke with The New York Times about why filming was done in the region.

''We are being extremely accurate in the spirit of this production,'' he told the newspaper. ''If purists want to say we should have filmed this picture exactly where the actual events happened, they have not visited many of those places lately. Some don't even exist anymore, and many have been overrun with commercialism. Most of the actual battlefields are covered with monuments and statues. We had 21 critical location scenes for this picture. We looked all over the country, and this 90-mile strip of western Arkansas met our requirements better than anywhere else.''

Evans, with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, says some of the artillery friction primers may be associated with reenactors.

But numerous items come from the period: Minie balls, grapeshot, Bormann fuses, exploded artillery, .69-caliber round balls, the tip of a bayonet scabbard and a piece of brass sash buckle, among them.

Much of the recovered debris is from Union guns fired from the valley toward Confederate artillery. “The hill was catching all that stuff,” Evans told the Picket.

Reenactors advance upon Borden home (Arkansas State Parks)

37th Illinois locked in fierce fighting

The ridge where the Borden home sat was the highest terrain on the battle and was an obvious place for the Confederates to place a large part of their artillery, as was done by Capt. William Blocher’s Arkansas battery. It provided a good view of a wide valley and Fayetteville-Cane Hill Road below. Gunners trained their weapons on a ford on the Illinois River.

Federal guns opened up below the Borden house, allowing for the Federal assaults. The 37^th Illinois – the only veteran unit in the assaults -- took part in the second wave.

Lt. Col. John Black

Commanding them was Lt. Col. Black, who was still recovering from a wound he suffered in the right arm at the Battle of Pea Ridge (about 40 miles north, ninth months before). Black rode in to battle on horseback, his disabled arm in a sling, and led his men up the slope to the orchard. Gunfire wounded his left arm during the pitched struggle.

Although the regiment became surrounded, Mulheran told the Picket, their experience and the five-shot Colt revolving rifle somewhat evened the circumstances. Eventually, they were forced to withdraw to the valley, where they fought off a determined Confederate counterattack and protected artillery.

Decades later, Black received the Medal Honor for extraordinary heroism: “Lieutenant Colonel Black gallantly charged the position of the enemy at the head of his regiment, after two other regiments had been repulsed and driven down the hill, and captured a battery; was severely wounded,” read the citation.

Black and his brother, Capt. William Black (for heroism at Pea Ridge), were among the few siblings to receive the Medal of Honor.

The 37^th had about 15% of its men killed or wounded at Prairie Grove.

A flawed weapon had its moments

The Colt revolving rifles did find success, and when used by experienced troops, they could result in a higher rate of fire.

Enfield bullet, blank from miniseries, fired Minie ball (AAS)

“They were a superior weapon but they did have a lot of trouble with them,” said Evans.

Carl Drexler, assistant research professor and station archeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, said the 37^th Illinois was issued about 200 of the revolving rifles prior to Pea Ridge (about 18,000 were manufactured until 1862).

Companies A and K had them, as did several Confederate regiments. But those Southern units went east of the Mississippi River before Prairie Grove.

Drexler provided this summary of the weapon by email:

“As far as their efficacy and importance, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The idea behind them was to increase the individual firepower of a common soldier. The .56-caliber version (most often carried in the West) used a 5-shot cylinder that could be swapped out when empty, which made any unit armed with them a formidable opponent. Also, unlike other multi-shot weapons of the period, they did not use metallic cartridges, meaning they were usable by Confederates or anyone with a bullet mold. That was the good.

Jessica Kowalski at work (Ark. Archeological Survey)

“The bad was, well, pretty crippling to the use of the weapon. If you’ve ever fired a cap-and-ball revolver you know that you have to seal the chambers very well to prevent loose powder being exposed, because flash and hot gasses from one chamber firing can ignite exposed powder in other cylinders, causing what is called ‘chain fire.’ Given the orientation of the cylinder to the barrel, this means you’re basically shooting bullets into the frame of the gun, which usually destroys it. It also means that you have bits of lead and gun frame flying sideways. That’s startling if you’re holding a pistol out in front of you, but if you’re firing a long arm, you’re expected to be aiming with your left hand resting on the fore stock… in front of the cylinder. You now have lead, iron, brass, and flame flying at your left forearm and hand, and many soldiers wound up maimed for life as a result.

“I think around 5,000 such weapons were ordered by the U.S. Army for the war, and the above flaws kept them from being ordered in larger numbers and made them very unpopular with the troops. They are known to have been crucial in several situations, though. The 37^th Illinois used them to good effect at Pea Ridge, and the 21^st Ohio defended Horseshoe Ridge at the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, with them in the early fall of 1864. They were an interesting and fairly logical idea (turn a functioning pistol design into a shoulder arm), but I would prefer to have had a Spencer.”

More work and research lie ahead

Mulheran and Evans say the discovery of the Colt rounds may put the regiment in a slightly different position than believed, perhaps a couple hundred yards away.

“By tracing where these bullets landed we can document the movement of this regiment,” Mulheran said.

Borden house is at right center (Arkansas State Parks)

Finds during the survey indicate a possible location for a Confederate battery.

More excavations and analysis are required for any new conclusions to be made.

A Facebook post from Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park summarizes what can be gleaned by such research.

“Battlefield archaeology is an important science that allows researchers to gain a better understanding of what happened during the Battle of Prairie Grove. The evidence can provide new details on how we interpret the battle and completely change the current perception of events. We look forward to seeing the results of this survey.”

Before and after of hillside (Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park