Civil War cannons raised from South Carolina river

FLORENCE, S.C. _ Three Civil War cannons were raised from the muddy water of the Pee Dee River on Tuesday, remnants of Union General William Sherman’s march through the Carolinas in 1865.tmpplchld The cannons were thrown off of the CSS Pee Dee as Sherman’s troops approached after the burning of Columbia.tmpplchld The recovery was made near Florence off U.S. 301 at the site of a former Confederate Naval Yard. The effort was headed by archaeologists from the University of South Carolina.tmpplchld A crowd of scientists, Civil War buffs and other onlookers cheered when the cannons were raised by a large yellow backhoe from the bank of the river. Scuba divers had attached lines to the more than 150-year-old armaments.tmpplchld The cannons will be transported to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston for conservation. That is the same lab where the Civil War-era CSS Hunley _ the first submarine to sink a ship in combat _ is being restored.tmpplchld The cannons will go on permanent outdoor display at the new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs building in Florence.tmpplchld South Carolina has dozens of Civil War cannons on display, especially in the Charleston area.tmpplchld But the cannons recovered Tuesday would spark curiosity about the Civil War in the Pee Dee, said Steve Smith, director of USC’s archeology institute.tmpplchld During the war, the Florence area was most known for a large prison camp, now the site of a national cemetery.tmpplchld A team of underwater archaeologists from USC raised the three cannons _ each weighing upwards of 15,000 pounds. They include two Confederate Brooke Rifle cannons and one captured Union Dahlgren cannon.tmpplchld The USC team began its search for the 150-foot Confederate gunboat and the cannons in 2009, which were scuttled when Sherman’s Union troops advanced northward. The naval yard on the Pee Dee River was destroyed on March 15, 1865.tmpplchld The Pee Dee, or Mars Bluff, Navy Yard was constructed in 1863 when the federal naval blockade and the capture of many of the state’s coastal areas drove the Confederate Navy’s shipbuilding efforts inland.tmpplchld The idea was to build a ship that could patrol the river and also sail in the ocean to harass the blockading federal or serve as commerce raiders.tmpplchld The CSS Pee Dee the first and only ship built at the Pee Dee yard. It was a Macon Class cruiser that 170 feet long with a 2-foot beam, armed with three cannons pivoting at bow, stern and amidships.tmpplchld The ship had sails as well as a boiler and giant twin propellers, and was once referred to by the Secretary of the Confederate Navy as the finest ship ever built by the Confederate Navy.tmpplchld The recovery project was funded, in part, by a grant of more than $200,000 from the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation in Florence.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 The State (Columbia, S.C.)tmpplchld Visit The State (Columbia, S.C.) at www.thestate.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld