Archaeologists Were Digging Up a Hospital—and Found the Skeletons of 4 Confederate Soldiers

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

Archeologists working for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation discovered the remains of four Confederate soldiers.
The crew was excavating a site that once stored gunpowder during the American Revolution when they came across the Civil War-era discovery.
The four soldiers’ remains were likely from when a makeshift hospital treated wounded soldiers during the Civil War’s Battle of Williamsburg.

Digging through an American Revolution gunpowder storage site resulted a discovery from a completely different war: the remains of four Confederate soldiers who likely died following a Civil War battle.

As archaeologists with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation excavated a site in search of American Revolution history, the team instead first came across the eye sockets of a human skull, according to a report from the Associated Press, before uncovering four skeletons and three amputated legs the experts believe are from Civil War casualties.

One skeleton has a Minié bullet—a common round of ammunition used in the Civil War—lodged in the spine, as does the foot of one of the amputated legs. With the available evidence, the experts deduced that the remains were likely from a makeshift hospital that functioned near the site during the Civil War, and they later dug through archives to find handwritten lists of soldiers that were admitted to the hospital following the Battle of Williamsburg.

With the lists in hand, the research team was able to start the process of identifying the soldiers. “It is the key,” Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s executive director of archaeology, told the AP. “If these men were found in a mass grave on a battlefield, and there was no other information, we probably wouldn’t be trying to do this.”

The list of the wounded was part of a private family’s archival documents which, at some point, were given to nearby William & Mary University. The researchers went through the detailed documentation, which included everything from names and regiments to dates of deaths and amputation information, for over 60 soldiers.

Using the thorough information from the list, experts believe the four soldiers came from regiments tied to Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Virginia. They even have some individual names in mind, keeping those close to the vest until they can work with possible descendants using DNA from the soldiers’ teeth. Gary said the goal is to ensure an “ironclad” identification.

The Battle of Williamsburg occurred on May 5, 1862. Experts believe that the roughly 25,000 men who fought for the Union and Confederate armies included 2,283 Union soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or missing and 1,560 for the Confederates.

The remains, which were initially discovered in 2023, were carefully buried with their arms crossed, indication they did not die during the battle, as those men were traditionally placed in trenches and then moved to a cemetery, Gary said.

The four soldiers were out of uniform, as evidenced by buttons and a buckle, commonly found on more comfortable clothes, that the archaeologists also found. Archaeologist Eric Schweickart told the AP that one soldier had two $5 gold coins from 1852, and they also found a toothbrush made from animal bone and a snuff bottle.

The AP reports that William & Mary’s Institute for Historical Biology believes the youngest soldier was between 15 and 19 years old and the oldest could have been up to 55 years old.

The remains were given a true burial, even as the investigation into their identity continues. “Everyone deserves dignity in death,” Gary said. “And being stored in a drawer inside a laboratory does not do that.”

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