It's the Pits: Analysis of Civil War Camp Features at Gloucester Point, Virginia

Summary

Gloucester Point, located at the confluence of the York River and Chesapeake Bay in eastern Virginia, was considered a strategic military position during the Civil War. Confederate soldiers quickly recognized the importance of defending this location and constructed a battery along the banks of the river, from which the earliest shots of the of the Civil War in Virginia were fired. The Confederate army abandoned the camp a year later, and it was subsequently occupied by Union troops. The Union retained control of the camp for the remainder of the war. Excavations at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point have uncovered numerous features left by Confederate and Union soldiers, and analysis of these features provides unique insight into the history of the camp and the lives of the individuals who occupied it throughout the war.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Port Town in Conflict and Peace: Gloucester Town and the Forty-Third Year of Increasingly Complex Archaeology at Gloucester Point, Virginia   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 834