REDDING, CONNECTICUT—Archaeologists Beth Morrison and Laurie Weinstein
of Western Connecticut State University and their students surveyed a
possible Revolutionary War–era encampment in Redding, Connecticut, and
concluded that the site was likely home to 1,000 to 1,500 Connecticut
soldiers during the winter of 1779. Known as the Middle Encampment, the
site was under the command of General Samuel Holden Parsons. Twelve
collapsed fireplaces and other piles of rocks are thought to mark the
locations of cabins and other outbuildings. A layer of burned animal
bone at the site is similar to debris found at nearby Putnam Park, where
soldiers from New Hampshire and Canada camped under the command of
Major General Israel Putnam over the same winter. The investigators also
recovered military buttons, shoe buckles, and musket balls. “We’re
happy to say that every single [site] we put a hole into came up with a
period-specific artifact,” Morrison said in a report by The Redding Pilot.
The site of a third Revolutionary War encampment in the region has been
lost to development. The Middle Encampment has been named a state
archaeological preserve.
No comments:
Post a Comment