Artifacts of Internment: Archaeology and Interpretation at Two American Civil War Prisoner-of-War Sites

Abstract

While the American Civil War (1861–1865) is best known for key events such as the Battle of Gettysburg, the horrid Civil War prisoner of war experience is also important, with 56,000 men perishing in Civil War prisons. At two PoW camp sites, managed and interpreted for the public by the US National Parks Service, archaeology has played an important role in enhancing understanding. Andersonville National Historic Site, Georgia, perhaps the most notorious of the Civil War prisons, has few surviving records or remains of the stockade, but archaeology has revealed two construction phases and key architectural features and living areas. At Fort Pulaski National Monument, Georgia, the location of the graves of the Confederate PoWs who died at Fort Pulaski were revealed through archaeology and are now marked and interpreted for the public by an outside exhibit.