Digging at SC's Camp Asylum

From the April 23, 2014, WFAE 90.7 FM NPR "Race to Unearth Civil War-Era Artifacts Before Developer Digs In" by Kevin Kniestedt.

A dozen archaeologists are busily working in downtown Columbia, SC, on a 165 acre fornmer site of a prisoner of war camp for Union officers named Camp Asylum.

Come April 30th, they'll have to vacate it so that a developer can start work.

During the winter 1864-1865, some 1000 Union officers were housed here in a prison that was originally the exercise yard of the state insane asylum, which gave the camp its name.

The prisoners were being moved around as Union General Sherman was moving his army through Georgia and South Carolina. The first prisoners arrived December 12, 1864, most with just a single blanket and there were no barracks, so they had to dig holes for warmth.

So far, archaeologists have found buttons, combs and a few other items. Surprisongly, there was only one recorded death during the time it was a prison, mostly because the cold weather prevented the spread of disease, the biggest killer in prisons.

--Old Secesh