Gypsy Heart
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LINCOLNTON --They came with new technology to probe mysteries in a Revolutionary War battlefield.
Using ground-penetrating radar, experts searched Saturday in Lincolnton for traces of a mass grave where 70 to 100 soldiers were buried after the Battle of Ramsour's Mill on June 20, 1780.
Terry Ferguson, program director for the geology department at Wofford College in Spartanburg sat on the stump of an oak tree old enough to have been around at the time of the battle. He watched thin, wavelike streaks crawl across a monitor screen.
The images were soil patterns reflected by radar signals shot four feet into the earth by something that looked like a lawn mower. A UNC Charlotte student pulled the device across the ground a few feet away.
"There. I see something," Ferguson said, pointing at a break in the normal soil patterns flowing on the screen. "It looks kind of odd."
Ferguson focused on a 26-square-foot area that had been identified as a probable burial site by a conventional archaeological excavation in 1991. The Lincoln County Historical Commission had funded that first project but wanted additional work at the same spot when high-tech equipment became available.
The commission hired Ferguson along with Alan May, curator of archaeology at Gastonia's Schiele Museum of Natural History. May also teaches historical archaeology at UNCC and brought along eight of his students to help with the project.
"It's exciting," said Katie Ferrell, 20, of Charlotte. "I want to be an archaeologist and work in a museum. I've always wanted to be one. When I was really young, I used to dig up stuff in our yard."
Results on Saturday were inconclusive, but the project lasts for another two weeks. The focus will be not only on the mass grave site, but other locations on the 88-acre battlefield.
"This is the most historic site in Lincoln County," said Bill Beam, who chairs the county's Historic Properties Commission. "We have so much growth in this county, and we need to make people aware of its history. They're part of the community now, and it's their history."
The battle at Ramsour's Mill began at daybreak when about 400 Patriots, or Whigs, attacked more than 1,300 Loyalists, also called Tories, who supported England.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/115/story/86166.html
Using ground-penetrating radar, experts searched Saturday in Lincolnton for traces of a mass grave where 70 to 100 soldiers were buried after the Battle of Ramsour's Mill on June 20, 1780.
Terry Ferguson, program director for the geology department at Wofford College in Spartanburg sat on the stump of an oak tree old enough to have been around at the time of the battle. He watched thin, wavelike streaks crawl across a monitor screen.
The images were soil patterns reflected by radar signals shot four feet into the earth by something that looked like a lawn mower. A UNC Charlotte student pulled the device across the ground a few feet away.
"There. I see something," Ferguson said, pointing at a break in the normal soil patterns flowing on the screen. "It looks kind of odd."
Ferguson focused on a 26-square-foot area that had been identified as a probable burial site by a conventional archaeological excavation in 1991. The Lincoln County Historical Commission had funded that first project but wanted additional work at the same spot when high-tech equipment became available.
The commission hired Ferguson along with Alan May, curator of archaeology at Gastonia's Schiele Museum of Natural History. May also teaches historical archaeology at UNCC and brought along eight of his students to help with the project.
"It's exciting," said Katie Ferrell, 20, of Charlotte. "I want to be an archaeologist and work in a museum. I've always wanted to be one. When I was really young, I used to dig up stuff in our yard."
Results on Saturday were inconclusive, but the project lasts for another two weeks. The focus will be not only on the mass grave site, but other locations on the 88-acre battlefield.
"This is the most historic site in Lincoln County," said Bill Beam, who chairs the county's Historic Properties Commission. "We have so much growth in this county, and we need to make people aware of its history. They're part of the community now, and it's their history."
The battle at Ramsour's Mill began at daybreak when about 400 Patriots, or Whigs, attacked more than 1,300 Loyalists, also called Tories, who supported England.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/115/story/86166.html
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