As we come up on the 145th anniversary of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, tomorrow, there was another Appomattox in the war, although mostly forgotten until recently and that would be the Confederate steamer CSS Appomattox, part of North carolina's Mosquito Fleet.
From the Feb. 7th Elizabeth City Daily Advance "History comes alive" by Reggie Ponder.
Jason Madre and a team of divers recently found the wreck of this ship at the bottom of the muddy Pasquotank River in August 2009 near South Mills. They immediately wanted the artifacts to be displayed somewhere and the Museum of the Albemarle now has "Diving the Dismal Swamp: The Search for the CSS Appomattox."
They didn't recover as many artifacts as they had hoed. Most likely because the crew knew the ship was to be set afire and either threw items overboard or carried them off. Then, the fire destroyed others.
They still were unsure of whether or not they had found the Appomattox until they came across a spoon with an engraving saying what appeared initially to be J. S. Kurrett, but later was found to be J. Skarett, belonging to James Skarett. He had been on the CSS Virginia, but had been transferred to the Appomattox at the time of its sinking.
At that time, they knew they had definitely found the ship.
Madre and the others: Eddie Congleton, Jason Forbes and his father Philip Madre, had found three other wrecks before the Appomattox.
Great to Find Something Lost to History. --Old B-Runner
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