Archaeological Examination Of An Early War Confederate Winter Encampment On The York-James Peninsula, Newport News, Virginia

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeological investigations in Newport News, Virginia uncovered a significant early war Confederate encampment. Historical documents indicated that it was likely occupied between October 1861 and March 1862 by troops including the 15th Virginia and the 5th Louisiana Infantries. Of considerable interest were several large single and multi-chambered pits that were used in conjunction with overhead shelter to protect soldiers from the cold and wind coming off the Warwick River. Upon abandonment of the encampment, these pits were backfilled so that they could not be used by the enemy. Items in the backfill would have included garbage, items that the soldiers did not want to take with them, and items that could be useful to the enemy. Many items spoke to encampment life, which included clothing related artifacts, a few personal items, alcohol and medicinal bottles, and a considerable amount of food remains such as food containers, ethnobotanical, and faunal remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology