Revolutionary find: 19 cannons in river likely sunk in 1779

A cache of 19 cannons believed to have come from British ships that were scuttled in the American Revolution are in a warehouse along the river.

The guns were discovered by accident. A dredge that dredged the riverbed last year as part of a $973 million deepen of the shipping channel surfaced with one of the cannons clasped in its metal jaws. The crew dug up two more.

Archaeologists thought they were leftover relics from a sunken Confederate gunship that was excavated a few years earlier. The experts for the U.S. Navy did not match any cannons used in the Civil War. Research shows they were almost a century older and sank in the middle of the Revolutionary War.

Georgia was founded as the last of Britain's 13 American colonies in 1733 and 19 cannons were hoisted from the same area of the river a few miles downstream.

Many of them were buried in clay and covered with silt and debris.

The state of Georgia is working with the U.S. and British governments on an agreement to preserve the guns before they are put on display. Commodore Philip Nash of the British Royal Navy, a military attache based in Washington, viewed artifacts submerged in metal tub of water during a visit Thursday.

Nash said that some of the pieces were in amazing condition and he could tell some stories.

The cannons are being kept in the water to prevent further damage. The cannons were linked to British ships from the American Revolution.

Farmer said researchers are very sure of the connection. The city was under British rule for about a year by the fall of 1779, when the colonists planned to take it back.

The British scuttled at least six ships in the river to block the French ships from entering. The land battle was the bloodiest of the war. British forces killed hundreds of colonial fighters and their allies.

The cannons found in the river are thought to have come from the British ship the HMS Venus, according to Farmer. She said cannons manufactured in France during the mid-1700s match the longer guns. Researchers are looking for ship logs and manifest to confirm the weaponry on those ships.

It is possible that the cannons themselves and other artifacts found at the site are from a different ship. The wood from those ships was destroyed by prior projects over the course of decades, according to Farmer.

The question of who owns the artifacts is murky. They were found during a project by the Army Corps of Engineers. If there is strong evidence that the artifacts came from British ships, the British government could make an ownership claim.

The cannons that were used in the bloodiest fighting of the 1779 siege will be displayed at the History Museum, according to Farmer.

Farmer said that everybody wants to keep the artifacts in the city.

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