In 1865 , the Confederate crew of the CSSPee Deeset their gunboat on fervency in ordering to keep it from falling into Yankee work force . Before doing so , they pushed the boat ’s three cast atomic number 26 cannon overboard into the South Carolina river where no one would find them .
The shank remained submersed until this past Tuesday , when archeologist from the University of South Carolina raise them from the Pee Dee River . One of the cannons was first discovered in 1995 , when amateur diverBob Butlerwas searching the river seam for the cannon he suspect had been jettisoned from the CSSPee Dee . He located the 2nd one in 2006 , and was present when the Pee Dee Research and Recovery Team obtain the third in 2013 . It was n’t until this week that he was able to witness all 35,000 pounds of Civil War history being lift by a front loader from the river ’s mirky depth .
The artifacts let in a nine - inch Dahlgren cannon and two Brooke reave cannons , which University of South Carolina archaeologistJames Spirekdescribed as “ premier naval weapons of the Civil War . ” The cannons would have been mounted on carriages that could rotate 180 degrees ; all three weapons were loaded with ammo when they were come across .
What impressed archaeologists the most was the pristine condition they were found in . The gumption and sludge where they laid buried for 150 years had keep the cannon perfectly preserve , while the river ’s fresh urine spare them from the corrosive personal effects of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks . The cannons ' foundry marks and the mold that had been made by inspectors can still be easily decipher .
Now that they ’ve been recovered , the cannons will stay in a lab for a few years of preservation before they ’re eventually put on video display at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs edifice in Florence , South Carolina .
[ h / t : Fox Carolina ]
