Archaeologists believe that they have thanked two collective graves of Black Union soldiers in Kentki for remote sensing techniques and a local historian’s dog work, allowing them to tell the story of the tragedy of a forgotten civil war.
On 25 January 1865, a company of Black Union Soldiers was ambushed by Confederate Guerillas in Simsonville, Kentki, a company. Kentaki was technically neutral during the civil war, but it was also home for the company E United States Calard Cavalry (USC). This company was based on Camp NelsonA union army depot, where many slaves listed to be free. The soldiers there were running 900 cattle heads towards Louisville as part of the union supply chain, when unexpectedly, they were attacked by better armed conferencing guerrillas.
in Guerrilla soldier – Often called Bushwockers – Instead of men who wanted to fight outside the army boundaries by stunning, ambush and killing soldiers rather than following the rules of war.
“There was no fight after this – it was a slaughter,” Philip MinkAn archaeologist at Kentaki University said in a 24th of April presentation Society for American Archaeology Conference at Denver. “Despite wearing the US Army uniform, most of the 22 people were shot in the back,” he said. “The guerrillas definitely targeted them because they were black,” Mink told Live Science.
At that time, the local newspaper coverage of the incident was minimum, with the report that the bodies were buried in a ditch by the residents of Simsonville. But no formal records of the burial site were created, and the buried commission of the Sangh did not attempt to locate the bodies of soldiers after the war.
Connected: 4 Confederate soldiers found in a civil war battlefield in Virginia, dissected legs and gold coins remains
After more than a century, local historian and Retired State Representative. Jerry Miller scattered in an attempt to find a large scale through oral history, archival documents and old maps Simsonville massacreHe joined the army with Mink and his colleagues in search of the tomb in 2008, when he investigated a local African American cemetery without any success. His research has not yet been published in the magazine reviewed by a colleague.
But in the case of cold, a large break came in the fall of 2023, when Miller found a single 1936 map, clearly marking a civil war buried mound which is now the area of a soybean farmer. The farmer confirmed the suspicion of the researchers: his father and grandfather always told him that his property was buried on his property.
Mink and his team then began a geopolitical study of the land in December 2023, using a drone-mounted magnetometer to scan under the ground for metal items such as bullets or belt buckles and terrestrial ground-pulses radar to search for a large-scale tomb location.
As archaeologists analyzed the data collected by them, they made zero to a discrepancy, which was about 5 feet (1.5 m) deep, 13 feet (4 m) wide and 65.6 feet (20 m) tall, which “corresponds to a collective grave,” Mink said in the presentation. However, their research also revealed each other, similar size discrepancy.
“This is not what I expected,” Mink said. “There is a possibility that there may be two large -scale tombs, as the 14 who were killed, 14 were immediately killed and were immediately buried.” The remaining soldiers were injured and later died and then buried in another grave.
Because the zamindar is currently a crop of soybean growing in the field, Mink said, the team plans to dig this fall to find a shallow trench to find the decisive evidence of the tombs.
“As soon as we see, we stop, we cover it back, and then we decide what our next steps are next,” Mink said, including consultation with descendants community, military representatives and protection experts.
“I am very impressed by the use of modern technology to give dignity to these long and forgotten African American soldiers,” Of Holi. NortonThe state archaeologists of Colorado, who were not involved in research, told live science.
The Simpsonville massacre is the story of injustice, Mink said, and deserves men to remember. The Headstone Kentki’s Shelby County Historical Society is built with the name of USCC soldiers, which was targeted by Confederate Guerillas, and Kentki’s Commonwealth has created a historic marker in memory of the massacre.
“In an ideal world, these people will be removed and the Camp Nelson will be reborn with full military honors at the National Ceraft, where many of his other companions are buried,” Mink said.
