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Archeologists with Coastal Heritage Society received a National Park Service, American Battlefield Protection Program Grant in July 2007 for a one year study. The purpose of the project was to locate, identify, and determine the level of preservation of as many archeological sites as possible in the City of Savannah that are related to the October 9, 1779 Battle of Savannah. To achieve these goals archeologists conducted extensive primary document research at repositories in Georgia, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. This research examined text and map documents. The gathered map data was entered into a GIS computer program and then overlaid on a recent digital map of the city. Archeologists used the location of their recent (2005) discovery of the Spring Hill Redoubt as one of the points of alignment between the historic maps and the modern map. Archeologists then analyzed the GIS data to determine which battlefield components appear to fall into modern green spaces owned by the city, such as town squares. Archeologists selected as many of these locations to ground-truth as time and budget allowed. They used a combination of ground penetrating radar, shovel test survey, metal detector survey, and test unit excavation. Areas examined included Madison Square, Lafayette Square, Emmet Park, Colonial Park Cemetery, Cuyler Park, Dixon Park, and Myers Park. The project was extremely successful. Archeologists located a defensive ditch (almost two meters deep) dug by the British in 1779, defended during the battle, and in-filled by the Americans in 1782. The ditch lies in what is now Madison Square. Brick fragments/rubble in the ditch was part of the brick from the barracks razed by the British less than two weeks before the battle. The brick was used in the defenses around the Central redoubts and was pushed into the British trenches following the British evacuation of the city in 1782. In nearby Lafayette Square, archeologists discovered artifacts that were likely discarded by British soldiers occupying the defensive lines near and in the Central Redoubts, and by civilians associated with the soldiers. Emmet Park revealed a deep (3.5 ft.) feature that may have been constructed as part of the river battery associated with nearby Fort Prevost. Not only did archeologists discover evidence of numerous unmarked graves in Colonial Park Cemetery, but also an anomaly that appears to be one of the ditches running toward a redoubt. Archeologists found no evidence of Revolutionary War activity in Cuyler, Dixon, and Myers parks. These locations were the most tenuous of the GIS data, since they were the farthest from the control points that were used to align the maps. This negative evidence will help reduce the search area for these sites during future investigations. The Savannah Under Fire project greatly expanded the battlefield resources, from one discovered in 2005 to four additional ones this year in areas that few people expected to contain Revolutionary War content. The project not only located and identified these resources, but revealed that they are in an excellent state of preservation. Additionally, the project served to share this exciting information with the public at large, including local residents, tourists, and city, county, and state officials. Numerous partners were involved in the project, with the most extensive in-kind and financial support provided by The LAMAR Institute of Savannah, Georgia. In addition to the promised in-kind match, The LAMAR Institute provided a $4,000 grant to extend fieldwork after the discovery of the extensive deposits in Madison Square.
Savannah Under Fire, 1779: Expanding the Boundaries represents the second phase (2009-2011) in the search for the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah. The first phase, Savannah Under Fire, 1779: Identifying Savannah’s Revolutionary War Battlefield was conducted between 2007-2009. Both projects were funded by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program with grants awarded to Coastal Heritage Society, Savannah, Georgia. Each incorporated extensive primary document research, geographic information systems (GIS) mapping, shovel test excavation, ground penetrating radar (GPR), test unit excavation, and public outreach. This report is an addendum to the first project report (Elliott and Elliott 2009) and the reader is referred to it for additional historical context and results from the first phase of work. The first project’s success was rooted in major discoveries of intact battlefield features. The second project sought to locate additional tangible remains of the battle in order to expand the geographical boundary of the site and provide a foundation for its preservation. In addition, the second phase sought to expand other boundaries by working with constituencies interested in and/or able to protect the battlefield site and its many varied components. The second phase project expanded the existing site boundary 400 yards farther south through the documentation of artifact collections made several years ago during construction in a key area held by French Reserve Corps. These artifacts, in tandem with the project’s archeological study of the area, indicate that more portions of this part of the battlefield are likely to have survived at that location. This project also identified two key areas of buried A-horizons likely to represent the battlefield landscape. Investigation of twelve target areas in Savannah revealed promise for additional battlefield and period-related resources in two of those locations. The work also served to eliminate geographic areas of site potential, reducing the scope of future searches. The project also successfully shared information from both studies with the general public in a myriad of ways, and produced a 4th and 5th grade curriculum packet. Both phases of the Savannah Under Fire projects have created an extensive body of information unknown previously. This historical and archeological information holds much promise; the promise of a new understanding of the southern colonies’ role in the American Revolution; of this momentous global event unfolding in the everyday lives of those finding themselves in Savannah in 1779; of the revelation to many today that history survives in our everyday world - one just needs to pick up his feet. But the promise of that history can only be fulfilled if it is protected and if its story is retold in a thousand different media and venues to a thousand different audiences. We are pleased to have produced a compendium of information that can provide the content for such stories and urge the City of Savannah and its residents to protect the resources (both newly discovered and those that await discovery) that contribute to these stories. This should be just the beginning, not the end.
In the summer of 2005 Coastal Heritage Society plans were well underway to develop a derelict property into Battlefield Park in downtown Savannah, Georgia. This would be the culmination of a movement to memorialize the fallen of the 1779 Battle of Savannah. This area contained Spring Hill Redoubt, which was one of over a dozen redoubts surrounding British-occupied Savannah prior to the battle. French and American allied officers chose to attack Spring Hill Redoubt with most of its forces. This area served as the focal point of the entire battle. Immediately prior to construction, a CHS archaeological crew conducted archaeological investigations employing trenching with heavy machinery, shovel shaving, and hand excavation of features. This investigation located portions of the original Spring Hill Redoubt. This included an intact section of the redoubt’s palisade trench, which contained post stains and artifacts directly associated with the 1779 battle. This archaeological discovery, in turn, served as the impetus for two National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) grants (2007, 2009) that would broaden the focus to the remaining portions of the Revolutionary War battlefield throughout Savannah.
Archaeological Investigations of City Parking Lot Number 2, Liberty Street Savannah, Georgia
Archaeological Investigations of City Parking Lot Number 2, Liberty Street Savannah, Georgia1999 •
Pre-modern warfare presents significant challenges to those who would attempt detailed analysis. Unlike post-Napoleonic era militaries, pre-modern armies rarely have any standardized organizational structure or guiding doctrine that enables us to make assumptions of how components were arrayed and employed on the battlefield. Unfortunately, this means much historical analysis simply glosses over or fails to examine details which would significantly affect our understanding of what occurred on the pre-modern tactical battlefield. This does not mean, however, that we must accept generalizations and assumptions. My research into inconsistencies in historical analysis of the Battle of Nagashino (Japan, 1575) has demonstrated the value of using certain concepts of contemporary military analysis as a construct for reexamining pre-modern conflict. Comprehensively viewing a battle or campaign across the levels of warfare, diving into the details of how each combatant army was organized and equipped, and in-depth analysis of terrain and weather effects provide insights beyond those that can be gleaned from reading old texts. With this approach, the need to drastically reevaluate how samurai armies utilized firepower at Nagashino becomes obvious. The goal of this paper is to explain these approaches as an analytical model to augment textual analysis by traditional historians, material analysis by archaeologists, and anthropological methodologies focused on participants, bringing these disparate approaches together in complementary ways.
Journal of Backcountry Studies
Brig. Gen. Andrew Williamson: The "Benedict Arnold of South Carolina" and America's First Major Double Agent --Part I2012 •
Brig. Gen. Andrew Williamson was a fascinating and highly controversial character in South Carolina history. He led a major successful campaign against the Indians early in the American Revolution. But then he was called the "Benedict Arnold of South Carolina" for laying down his arms in June 1780 and taking British protection. He surprised his critics by revealing after the war that he had been successfully spying on British forces in Charleston for about a year in 1781-2, thus making him perhaps the highest ranking and first major double agent in American history. Despite this, Williamson is almost never mentioned in any of the numerous books and articles on the history of American espionage. This two part biography of Williamson for the first time describes his early life, career, campaigns, defection, American attempts to kidnap him, attempted confiscation of his property after the war, his spying techniques, his apparent role in the evacuation of Charleston by the British at the end of the war, his fight against confiscation, his death, and his family and descendants. The biography also covers his important plantation White Hall in upcountry SC, its role as a battleground, military HQ, POW camp, and its later disappearance. The pieces also outline three unsuccessful archaeological efforts to find the missing plantation.
This is the chronicle of a young 18th-century German musician shipped to America as a musketeer in the Anspach-Bayreuth military forces sent to aid Britain in her effort to quell the rebellion of the "Thirteen Colonies." With the initial focus on the 1st Anspach Regiment, it follows the movements of the Margrave's troops at their departure from Ansbach in March of 1777 through the conflict until their capture at Yorktown in 1781...it continues through their dreadful incarceration for virtually two years. Yet, just following their long awaited release and prior to their embarkation for return to the Fatherland in 1783, the captivating story of the young soldier unfurls as he embraces the "new experiment," remains in Philadelphia, assimilates into the local population, becomes one of the earliest professional musicians of the early Federal period and, ultimately, meets his untimely demise in the capital city's horrific Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793.
This archaeology project encompasses part of an area known historically as the Railroad Ward, a community occupied partially by railroad workers and their families during the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as by other blue and white collar workers not associated with the Central of Georgia Railroad. The study area is located in the City of Savannah, in Chatham County, Georgia. It is situated downtown within the boundaries the Central of Georgia Railroad National Historic Landmark District. The people who lived in and around the study area were largely a transient group and not the most prominent citizens of Savannah. Consequently, these people have left only fragmentary glimpses of their lives in the archival record. As a group, they represent the working class, with occupations ranging from common laborer, to more skilled tradesmen. This project examines the lives of individual inhabitants as well as the underground economies, ethnicity, diversity, and evolving demographics on a neighborhood level during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Coastal Heritage Society (CHS) owned then leased the property for construction of a hotel that would extend onto an adjacent parcel not owned by CHS. In spite of the fact that there was no funding for archaeological investigation through the development project or through any city or state revenues, and archaeology was not required by any city ordinance, CHS made the responsible decision to undertake archaeology on its parcel. Unfortunately, neither the landowners, nor the developers, nor the City of Savannah attempted to save the archaeological information contained on the adjacent parcel, much of which is now destroyed.
10th Fields of Conflict Conference 2018, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
The Netherlands during the Napoleonic Era (1795-1814). Using detector finds to shed light on an under-researched periodLoading Preview
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Archaeological Data Recovery at the Waldburg Street Site (9Ch1039) Savannah, Georgia
Archaeological Data Recovery at the Waldburg Street Site (9Ch1039) Savannah, Georgia2004 •
Army History
Out of the Shadow and into the Light Col. David "Mickey" Marcus and U.S. Civil Affairs in World War II2016 •
2011 •
A Cultural Resources Survey for Proposed Olympic Beautification Landscape Enhancement and Street Improvements, Oglethorpe Avenue, Savannah, Georgia
A Cultural Resources Survey for Proposed Olympic Beautification Landscape Enhancement and Street Improvements, Oglethorpe Avenue, Savannah, Georgia1994 •
Strategy in the American War of Independence: A Global Approach. Edited by Donald Stoker, Kenneth J. Hagan, Michael T. McMaster.
"The King’s Friends: Loyalists in British Strategy"2009 •
2012 •
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Journal of Backcountry Studies
Backcountry Warrior: Brig. Gen. Andrew Williamson and White Hall, Part II2012 •
Life in the Queensborough Township: Data Recovery at Hannah's Quarter, Site 9JF195, Jefferson County, Georgia
Life in the Queensborough Township2002 •
2012 •
2009 •
1998 •