SAVANNAH, Ga. – Dragging radar equipment behind a farm tractor, scientists Thursday scanned an old rail yard for buried artifacts from Savannah’s bloody Revolutionary War battle in 1779.
The city, which is developing a park on the battlefield site, hopes the excavation will reveal trenches and earthen fortifications used by British troops to drive back French soldiers and colonial militiamen who tried to reclaim the city 225 years ago.
It was the second-most lopsided battle of the war, after Bunker Hill.
“It all happened in 55 minutes. And every minute, five to eight people are being killed on the average,” said Scott Smith, director of the Savannah-based Coastal Heritage Society. “Even for a modern battle, if it occurred in Baghdad or something, we’d be a little shocked.”
Often overshadowed in the South by the Civil War, the American Revolution left a bloody legacy along coastal Georgia – one of the original 13 colonies.
The Battle of Savannah occurred on Oct. 9, 1779, after 5,000 French troops joined the roughly 2,000 militiamen seeking to take back the city, which had been seized by the British the previous year.
The allies charged British fortifications on a low ridge known as Spring Hill – the future park site – and were gunned down in five waves. About 300 died on the spot, and hundreds more were mortally wounded.
British casualties totaled only about 50, Smith said.
The city bought the battlefield site last year from the Norfolk Southern railroad, which had used it for a rail yard. A total of $23 million in federal, state and local funds has been allocated to develop the 9.5-acre park, set to open next year.
Historians have a general idea of the battlefield’s layout from British plans drawn before the battle, which researchers have compared with modern maps of the city.
To get a more accurate picture, the city hired an engineering firm to take a three-dimensional snapshot of objects and soil disturbances up to 10 feet underground using ground-penetrating radar.
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