Revolutionary War cannons found in river
The first cannon that was pulled up from Georgia's Savannah River surprised the workers for the Army Corps of Engineers who dredged them out of the riverbed's clay.
The next two piqued their interest and brought divers, archaeologists and sonar operators to search for more centuries-old treasures.
Then they pulled up 12 more cannons, covered in rust, sediment and mussels, and when experts began to lecture about the discoveries, they didn't even know that yet another cannon had been found.
By the time the dredging project ended in March, the corps had brought 19 cannons to the surface, all thought to be relics from ships sunk during the American Revolution, when the British occupied Savannah.
Andrea Farmer, an archaeologist for the Savannah district of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the cannons were most likely from the HMS Savannah, one of several British vessels sunk in an area called Five Fathom Hole. The Savannah was sunk to block the advance of French troops, who were allied with the rebels, in September 1779.
“There are historical records from the time period that state it was sunk so quickly that they left everything: the armament, the provisions, pretty much the only thing that was not on board were humans,” Farmer said.
By the fall of 1779, George Washington was trying to organize an offensive against the British along with the revolutionaries' French allies. That October, American and French forces assaulted the city of Savannah by land in one of the deadliest battles of the war, known as the Siege of Savannah. But they failed to dislodge the British, and the French fleet sailed for home before the start of hurricane season. The British didn't evacuate Savannah until 1782.
“Savannah would honestly look a lot different today if they had been able to attack via the water,” Farmer said.