Archeologists have made a major Civil War discovery in east Georgia.The find launches what’s expected to be a decades-long unveiling of a lost Union prison camp.Confederate forces hastily evacuated Camp Lawton in rural Millen, Georgia in late 1864 as Federal forces pushed deeper into Georgia.

After that, the 42-acre stockade southeast of Atlanta was practically forgotten. That’s until this past winter when Dr. Sue Moore and her team of archeologists with Georgia Southern University started doing basic shovel tests of earth:

"We started turning up buttons and pipes and buckles and just an enormous amount of stuff and were just totally, totally flabbergasted and astounded by this."

With less than 1% of the site excavated, there could be untold numbers of untouched artifacts. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which owns part of the land, has installed security fencing, motion detectors and cameras to protect the site.

All artifact photo credits: Amanda L. Morrow, Georgia Southern University
Slideshow produced by Amanda Scott.

Tags: Georgia Southern University, Civil War, millen georgia, camp lawton, civil war prison camp