Science Digs Into Civil War Sites

[Adsos Letter]

SOURCE: US News & World Report
CAMERON McWHIRTER,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATLANTA—Just north of I-20 on Moreland Avenue in Atlanta sits an intersection on a low hill. There's a gas station and a liquor store and some other businesses, but not much else.

Though you would never know it from the unremarkable view, thousands of men died here 145 years ago in one of the fiercest fights of the Civil War.

Confederate Private Sam Watkins, wounded in the battle that July day in 1864, recalled bodies, horses, wagons and cannon "piled indiscriminately everywhere" and "streams of blood."

But Atlanta did forget. Since the war, the city has sprawled out in every direction with buildings, roads and traffic, paving over this battleground and others.

Today most people assume any archaeological record of the clash of two enormous armies more than 160,000 men has been obliterated by modernity.

Not so fast.

LINK: http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2009/11/29/science-digs-into-civil-war-sites.html

[Jane Austin]

1. That's fascinating.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

[appleannie1]

2. WOW My great, great grandfather took part in some of those battles, from the Union side.

Thank you very much for posting this.