Understanding the Florence Stockade Guard Camp

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Archaeology of Arms: New Analytical Approaches", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A proposed expansion of the Florence National Cemetery triggered archaeological data recovery of a nine-acre area adjacent to the Florence Stockade. The Florence Stockade was constructed in Florence, South Carolina in September, 1864 to house Union enlisted prisoners of war. The prison was an open stockade on the Andersonville model, and guard camps for regular troops and South Carolina reserves were placed around the stockade. The area excavated for the cemetery expansion contained the eastern end of a guard camp first used by the 5th Georgia Infantry. Analysis of the recovered archaeological remains in comparison to historical documentation of the prison provided important insights into the state of equipage and the use of shelters by Confederate prison guards going into the last year of the war.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Arms: New Analytical Approaches   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow