In Situ Archaeological Evaluation of the CSS Georgia Savannah Harbor, Georgia

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, operates and maintains the Savannah Harbor Navigation Project and, in partnership with the Georgia Ports Authority, is examining the feasibility of deepening the Savannah Harbor navigation channel. To ensure compliance with various federal and state statutes, the Savannah District has re-initiated studies of the CSS Georgia shipwreck, a National Register of Historic Places listed site. Locally built in 1862 and originally designed as an ironclad gunboat, Georgia was moored in the Savannah River opposite Fort Jackson approximately five miles down river from the City of Savannah. Designated a "Floating Battery," the vessel served as an integral element of Confederate defenses that protected Savannah until General W. T. Sherman's Union Army captured the city. After a 20-month operational life, Georgia was scuttled in December 1864 to prevent capture by advancing Union troops.

Performed under subcontract to Gulf South Research Corporation of Baton Rouge, Louisiana the current investigation of the wreck site was conducted by the joint team of Panamerican Consultants, Inc. of Memphis, Tennessee and Tidewater Atlantic Research, Inc. of Washington, North Carolina. Conducted under Contract No. DACW21-98-D-0019, Delivery Order No. 0059, and under Department of the Navy Archaeological Research Permit No. PCI-2003-002, the focus of the contract was to determine the effects of past, present, and future activities associated with the existing navigation project on the remains. Perhaps the most critical issue was assessing the potential effect of future channel deepening on the surviving remains of the CSS Georgia.

The current investigation clearly established that the surviving remains of the Civil War ironclad are limited, and that the lower hull of the vessel no longer exists. Two large sections of iron casemate and a third smaller section are present along with the vessel's propulsion machinery including steam cylinders and at least one propeller and shaft, three cannons, a possible boiler, and miscellaneous, small, as of yet unidentified components and artifacts. The absence of lower hull and the impacts to the existing components are a direct result of historic salvage and to a much greater degree operation and maintenance dredging operations associated with the Savannah Harbor Navigation Project. With respect to dredging impacts, the previous dredging activities, especially the 1983 box cutting of side slopes and excavation of 4 vertical feet of

channel bottom for advance maintenance dredging at the wreck site, have had an extreme and ongoing adverse effect on the property. Besides cutting or "chewing" into the wreck, dredging impacts have destabilized the site by removing protective sediments and have resulted in the continuous and ongoing degradation of the wreck through exposure (i.e. teredo damage, erosion, etc.). Furthermore, the proposed channel deepening as planned will most certainly have a further adverse effect on this National Register property and will result in its destruction.