Pit 34: Level 1

Completed by Fred Morrison, Jocy and DC Locke, Odess and David Brinkman, on January 12, 2012. It was in the upper 70's when we started the dig. Level 1 produced an unusually high number of artifacts like pottery and nails and maybe only the second pit where we found a pipe piece in the first level. Could this be another pit with 2 layers of artifacts? But, the biggest find, by David, was not realized until artifact cleaning. What we thought was a heavy solid iron rod turned out to have a perfect .22 diameter hole through the center. We think it may be a portion of a Civil War pistol barrel. Sherman's Right wing camped at the old Granby site in 1865 just before coming into Columbia. Wade Hampton's artillery (from the Columbia side of the river) killed several of Sherman's men at this camp. Among the other interesting artifacts of this pit is what appears to be the bottom of a pipe bowl where the stem comes in. We are still investigating this as it does seem unusual for a pipe but it is made of the same ceramic as other pipe pieces.

Pit 34: Level 1 produced: 10 pieces of pottery, 7 pieces of glass, gun barrel, bottom of pipe bowl, and 5 nails.




Below is a close-up of the gun barrel which we think may be from Sherman's Right-wing camp site in 1865.