Archaeology Reveals Hidden History

[PaigeBooth]

Last weekend, I traveled to Orange, Virginia, to visit Montpelier, home of President James Madison. While there, I had the pleasure of visiting the sight where a Civil War camp once stood. Excavations revealed a virtually untouched Confederate encampment at this location. The sight of the camp is located on Montpelier property, however, James Madison passed away in 1836, so by the time the Civil War blew through the area, Madison was no longer there.

Archaeologists determined that Samuel McGowan's South Carolina Brigade camped at this site. Rich finds provide a picture of the soldiers' daily lives as they struggled here during the harsh winter of 1863-64.

In the picture below, notice how Archaeologists excavated the sites of two Confederate huts and the remains of a hearth (rock mounds) surrounding a fireplace (patch of red clay) scorched by fires.

Very few food containers or animal bones were found at this camp, indicating that the soldiers' sparse diet consisted of corn meal, salt pork, hardtack, etc.

Soldiers were issued only a tent and a handful of nails with which to construct their huts. They obtained the rest of the materials-- timbers, stone, etc-- from the woods around them. Each hut held four soldiers.