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LSU students dig into Civil-War era history

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« on: October 12, 2009, 09:42:07 pm »

LSU students dig into Civil-War era history

October 12, 2009

   
By The Associated Press

PORT HUDSON — LSU graduate archaeology student Brian Hess once studied American Indians of the western United States, but he's now trying his hand at Civil War archaeology on part of a major Louisiana battlefield.

Hess, from Seattle, is studying Union Siege Battery 8 — or what's left of it — at the Port Hudson State Historic Site north of Baton Rouge, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

Federal troops fired 12-inch Napoleon cannons and highly accurate 3-inch ordinance rifles at a Confederate position known as "Fort Desperate," said Port Hudson Manager Gregg Potts and Curator Mike Fraering.

Union forces surrounding Port Hudson tried two all-out assaults against the position on May 27 and June 14, 1863, but the defenders held their ground. Union commanders then settled on a siege strategy to force the entire garrison to surrender July 9.

While studying at the University of Washington, Hess said he participated in archaeological projects at Pacific Coast Indian sites.

"The American Civil War didn't have quite the presence in Washington as it did in Louisiana," he said jokingly.
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Derelict
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« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2009, 09:43:08 pm »

"There is a lot that gets left over from battlefields. A lot of 'trash' was left over there, and trash becomes artifacts," Hess said, pointing in the direction of Fort Desperate, about a quarter-mile away.

The Port Hudson project forms the basis of his master's thesis, in which Hess said he will try to contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the construction of Civil War earthworks.

Archaeologists have studied Fort Desperate, but not as much is known about the gun batteries that faced the position, Hess said.

Union Siege Battery 8 is noted on the hiking trail to Fort Desperate but is concealed by large trees and thick underbrush. One of the goals is to determine the exact boundaries of the battery, Hess said.

Hess and the park employees also hope they can find evidence of a zigzag trench, or sap, that historical accounts say the Union troops dug from the battery to a short distance from the Confederate lines.
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Fraering said Union troops would have filled in the trench after they took Port Hudson to prevent Confederate troops from counter-attacking. No one knows exactly where it started or ended.
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Hess and his associates looked near the Confederate lines earlier this year but could not find the sap.

A group of LSU students, volunteers, state Office of Archaeology employee Kelleye French and Southeast Regional Archaeologist Rob Mann, also of LSU, painstakingly excavated five square-meter sections of one gun position in the battery last week to begin the latest phase, looking for possible signs of a structure that may have been erected as cover for the gunners.

One early discovery was a wire that would have been yanked with a lanyard to set off a friction primer to fire an artillery piece.

"It's relatively rare. You don't see them in relic books," Fraering said.

Mann said the project also will produce a digital topographical map of the area that the park staff may overlay with historical maps to gain a better understanding of the battle positions.

http://www.dailyworld.com/article/20091012/NEWS01/910120310
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« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2009, 09:43:27 pm »



Regional archaeologist Rob Mann of LSU, left, photographs an excavation at a Civil War cannon position that is part of Union Siege Battery 8 on the Port Hudson battlefield north of Baton Rouge. LSU graduate student Brian Hess, second from left, Port Hudson Interpretative Ranger Jarred Guidry and Virginia Middleton hold a tarp to shield the floor from direct sunlight.
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« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2009, 09:44:37 pm »

Fraering said Union troops would have filled in the trench after they took Port Hudson to prevent Confederate troops from counter-attacking. No one knows exactly where it started or ended.

Hess and his associates looked near the Confederate lines earlier this year but could not find the sap.

A group of LSU students, volunteers, state Office of Archaeology employee Kelleye French and Southeast Regional Archaeologist Rob Mann, also of LSU, painstakingly excavated five square-meter sections of one gun position in the battery last week to begin the latest phase, looking for possible signs of a structure that may have been erected as cover for the gunners.

One early discovery was a wire that would have been yanked with a lanyard to set off a friction primer to fire an artillery piece.

"It's relatively rare. You don't see them in relic books," Fraering said.

Mann said the project also will produce a digital topographical map of the area that the park staff may overlay with historical maps to gain a better understanding of the battle positions.
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