Archaeologists comb newly-found Civil War POW camp
I love new finds, and this sounds like a good one. According to the article (and I know very little about Civil War prisons or POWs on either side, so I have to take their word for it for now), Camp Lawton opened as a replacement for Andersonville in October 1864. Six weeks later, with Sherman coming on fast, the Confederates evacuated the prisoners in the middle of the night--leaving most of their stuff behind. The stuff lay forgotten there until now.
What's cool about this stuff is what it isn't. It isn't official war correspondence or bulletins or telegrams from one leader to another. It isn't rifles and bayonets and sabers and the things they carried that we already know about. It's the stuff of everyday life--the version of everyday life that belongs to men who spent years on campaign, then years more in a POW camp. It tells us a little bit about men who've been largely forgotten, except perhaps by their own families. It sheds light on what life might have been like for these men whose stories we don't hear much.
This is real Nerd stuff. I just wanted to share it.
Go get your nerd on!
HN
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