Some construction work on the University of Alabama has led to a real life lesson in archeology. UA students will spend the coming weeks analyzing artifacts they dug up at a site dating back to the Civil War. Work crews discovered the remains of what’s beleved to be Washington Hall. That’s one of the four original buildings on the UA campus that was burned to the ground at the end of the war. UA director of archeological research Matthew Gage explains how the site was discovered…
“The university was putting in a new light pole on the corner, and the head of facilities construction called me up and said, Hey, we think we found a portion of one of the old campus buildings, walls,” he said.
Students completed a dig of the site in December as part of an archeological field school. The goal now is to examine the artifacts left over from a fire toward the end of the Civil War. The Alabama Archives says Union troops, under General John Croxton, marched on Tuscaloosa with orders to destroy military assets. That included the university. Most buildings, including dormitories, the library, and other facilities, were burned, leaving only four structures standing: the President's Mansion, the Gorgas House, the Observatory also known as Maxwell Hall,and a guardhouse. UA senior Anthropology major Donovan Fraiser says the dig at Washington Hall uncovered some clues to the past.
“We found some pretty old pottery, like, pre–Civil War, pre probably the university existing,” said Fraiser. “So it's a piece, I want to say it's about an inch across, inch squared, and it's just really nice intact pottery.”
According to the Alabama Archives, after its destruction during the Civil War and the building of Woods Hall in 1867, the University re-opened in 1871.A Several more buildings had been added to the campus in the 1880s, all at the north side of the modern Quad: Manly, Clark, Garland, Tuomey, and Oliver-Barnard Halls.
