You won’t find literal gold aboard CSS Georgia—the “gold” refers to the $115,000 raised by the Ladies’ Gunboat Association through Georgia’s unprecedented 1862 fundraising campaign. These statewide donations financed the ironclad’s construction, including its innovative railroad iron armor layered over wooden backing. The vessel served as a stationary floating battery defending Savannah until Lieutenant General Hardee ordered its scuttling on December 21, 1864, before Sherman’s forces captured the city. The wreck’s recovery between 2015-2017 yielded 32,782 artifacts that illuminate Confederate naval engineering and wartime resourcefulness.
Key Takeaways
- CSS Georgia was a Confederate ironclad vessel scuttled in the Savannah River in December 1864 to prevent Union capture.
- The ship served as a stationary floating battery defending Savannah for approximately 20 months without firing in battle.
- Savannah women raised over $115,000 through the Ladies’ Gunboat Association fundraising campaign to fund ironclad construction.
- Recovery operations from 2015-2017 retrieved 32,782 artifacts including cannons, steam cylinders, and a propeller from the wreckage.
- No historical records indicate CSS Georgia carried or was associated with gold; searches likely confuse naval artifacts with treasure.
The Ladies’ Gunboat Association Fundraising Campaign
The Confederate home front witnessed an unprecedented mobilization in early March 1862 when Savannah women established the Ladies’ Gunboat Association, initiating a statewide campaign that would ultimately raise over $115,000 for ironclad construction.
You’ll find this grassroots mobilization represented women’s strategic insertion into military affairs, traditionally reserved for men. Two Macon women prompted the coordinated effort, establishing chapters throughout Georgia to maximize geographic reach and fundraising capacity.
These societies orchestrated community fundraisers while employing epistolary writing and newspaper discourse to stimulate club formation statewide. Women’s contributions transcended mere financial support—they challenged conventional gender boundaries by invoking Republican Motherhood rhetoric to justify their expanded public role.
This voluntary campaign responded to intensifying fears of Union coastal invasion, demonstrating how civilian populations could directly contribute to Confederate naval defense infrastructure during wartime resource scarcity. The funds enabled construction of CSS Georgia as a floating battery designed specifically to protect Savannah from naval attacks. A citizens’ committee led by businessman Alvin N. Miller oversaw the vessel’s design, ensuring the fundraising efforts translated into functional military infrastructure.
Railroad Iron Armor: Innovation Born From Necessity
Confederate shipbuilders confronted a critical materials shortage when constructing CSS Georgia’s protective casemate, as rolled iron plate production remained severely constrained by the South’s limited industrial infrastructure.
You’ll find that Tredegar in Richmond and Schofield & Markham in Atlanta couldn’t supply sufficient 2-inch rolled plate, forcing Alvin N. Miller’s Savannah shipyard toward improvisation.
The solution employed readily available railroad iron—standard T-rails measuring 4 inches by 4 inches, weighing 400 pounds each at 24-foot lengths. This armor construction layered rails horizontally over 24 inches of alternating pine and oak backing.
The casemate’s nearly 45-degree pitch provided additional defensive advantage by encouraging shot deflection rather than direct penetration.
Builders likely confiscated the railroad iron from Northern-owned rail companies, particularly the line running from Brunswick, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida.
While CSS Virginia’s dual-layered rolled plate arrangement at right angles proved superior, Georgia’s expedient design mirrored similar railroad iron applications on CSS Arkansas, Manassas, and Louisiana—practical responses when necessity demanded innovation over ideal metallurgical standards.
From Launch to Commission: A Troubled Beginning
While makeshift armor addressed material constraints, CSS Georgia’s path from shipyard to active service revealed far graver challenges that would ultimately define her operational limitations.
You’ll find the construction timeline remarkably compressed—launched May 19, 1862, yet not commissioned until April 9, 1863, nearly eleven months later. This delay foreshadowed deeper problems.
Initial trials exposed catastrophic operational struggles: her steam engines couldn’t overcome the Savannah River’s tidal currents, rendering the ironclad immobile despite $115,000 in donations.
Rather than the mobile gunboat envisioned by the Ladies’ Gunboat Association, CSS Georgia became a stationary floating battery, anchored opposite Fort Jackson.
Lieutenant Washington Gwathmey commanded a vessel that maneuvered only via anchor lines—a humiliating reality for Georgia’s defiant investment in Confederate naval defense. Built at Hardings Shipyard near Alvin Miller’s foundry, the vessel represented the combined efforts of hundreds of Confederate soldiers and craftsmen. The ironclad would serve approximately 20 months defending river channels below Savannah before meeting her final fate.
Anchored Defense: The Floating Battery Strategy
Unable to overcome the Savannah River’s relentless currents, CSS Georgia received formal designation as a “Floating Battery” in April 1863—a bureaucratic acknowledgment of engineering failure that redefined her tactical purpose.
You’ll find her moored to cribbing opposite Old Fort Jackson, where the river narrowed to a single defensible channel. This anchored strategy transformed liability into asset: her crew manipulated anchor lines to swing the broadside battery across advancing Union vessels, creating a mobile artillery platform where land-based emplacements couldn’t reach.
The floating defense concept proved ingenious—guns positioned directly in the channel threatened any naval advance toward Savannah, providing autonomous firepower without requiring stable ground. Despite her formidable positioning, the ironclad never fired in battle, her deterrent presence alone sufficient to discourage Union naval attacks on the city.
For over two years, this stationary guardian protected Confederate commerce routes, her immobility paradoxically strengthening Savannah’s defensive perimeter against federal encroachment. When Union forces approached from land in late 1864, the Confederate garrison evacuated Fort Jackson on December 20, rendering the river defenses untenable.
Sherman’s Approach and the Decision to Scuttle
When Sherman’s forces encircled Savannah by land in December 1864, Confederate Lieutenant General William J. Hardee faced an imminent tactical dilemma: surrender the city and allow CSS Georgia‘s capture for Union repurposing, or deny the enemy this ironclad asset.
On December 21, hours before Savannah’s fall, Hardee ordered the vessel’s destruction. The crew destroyed the vessel before Union capture, preventing it from falling into Union hands. The crew executed scuttling through explosive charges, sinking the floating battery approximately 200 yards from Fort Jackson in nearly 40 feet of water. CSS Savannah engaged in an artillery duel with Union guns on December 20, representing the last Confederate ship to fight in Georgia waters before the city’s evacuation.
Sherman’s March Threatens Savannah
- Infantry divisions stripping farms bare while destroying railroads, twisting iron rails around trees in “Sherman’s neckties.”
- Cavalry screens sweeping aside scattered resistance, encountering only token opposition from outmatched Confederate horsemen.
- Bummer foragers ranging miles from main columns, seizing livestock and provisions to sustain the campaign.
Confederate Weakness became undeniable as Lieutenant General Hardee’s inadequate garrison faced encirclement.
Confederate Crew Destroys Georgia
Sherman’s westward columns tightened their noose around Savannah through mid-December 1864, forcing Lieutenant General William J. Hardee into an impossible calculus.
You’d recognize the strategic retreat as inevitable—land-based encirclement negated the Georgia’s successful river defense.
Lieutenant Washington Gwathmey received orders to prevent Union acquisition of his floating battery and its ordnance. On December 20’s night, his crew executed systematic scuttling procedures opposite Fort Jackson.
Crew morale held despite abandoning their twenty-month station; they understood the tactical necessity. The deliberately sunken ironclad carried six cannons and munitions to the riverbed rather than risk Confederate weaponry turned against Southern positions.
Hours later, Savannah surrendered. The Georgia’s destruction represented pragmatic military doctrine—deny enemy resources through controlled asset elimination when conventional withdrawal proves impossible.
Salvage Operations and a Century of Obscurity
After Confederate forces deliberately scuttled CSS Georgia on December 20-21, 1864, to prevent her capture during Sherman’s March to the Sea, the ironclad’s fate entered a prolonged cycle of exploitation and abandonment.
In 1866, salvage history began when contractors used underwater explosive charges to shatter the wooden hull, recovering approximately 80 tons of railroad iron armor while leaving machinery intact.
Then the wreck vanished from historical consciousness for over a century.
The site’s underwater archaeology tells a story of neglect:
- Chocolate pudding-like visibility concealed the disarticulated hull from discovery
- Worm-eaten wood fragments scattered across the riverbed
- Seven interlocking railroad iron patterns barely recognizable beneath sediment
Pre-1968 dredging equipment accidentally damaged remaining structures.
Finally, 1969 Navy divers conducted 28 exploratory dives, confirming the ironclad’s identity and raising over 200 ordnance pieces.
Rediscovery During 1968 Dredging Operations
The CSS Georgia‘s century of obscurity ended abruptly in 1968 when a dredge operating in the Savannah River struck structural remains of the ironclad during routine channel maintenance operations.
This accidental contact marked the wreck’s first confirmed location since its 1866 scuttling, though the site remained adjacent to the main shipping channel where subsequent dredging equipment and placement of navigational anchors inflicted additional damage to the disarticulated hull.
You’ll find that these initial impacts, combined with the wreck’s pre-existing fragmentation from Civil War-era explosive charges, complicated later archaeological assessments of the vessel’s structural integrity.
Accidental Discovery While Dredging
The discovery revealed:
- Deteriorated casemate armor entangled with dredging equipment’s cutting heads
- Structural remnants embedded in riverbed sediment at significant depth
- Railroad iron reinforcements corroded but intact enough to halt modern machinery
Standard dredging techniques couldn’t penetrate the ironclad’s hull.
This accidental encounter demonstrated the wreck’s historical significance, though recovery remained unfunded.
Anchors marked the site, awaiting future archaeological intervention.
Damage From Channel Operations
During routine maintenance in 1968, dredging equipment struck the CSS Georgia’s submerged remains, marking the beginning of systematic structural compromise that would continue for decades.
These dredge impacts initiated continuous degradation as protective sediments were stripped away, exposing timber and iron to destructive forces.
The 1983 advance maintenance operation inflicted severe damage through box cutting of side slopes and excavation of four vertical feet, which chewed directly into the wreck site.
You’ll find that removal of sediment cover accelerated biological destruction—teredo worms consumed most wooden components while erosion weakened structural integrity throughout.
Over 150 years of merchant traffic combined with repeated channel operations created cumulative damage that necessitated the eventual $14 million recovery project when harbor expansion demanded deepening from 42 to 47 feet.
The 2015 Recovery Mission and Harbor Expansion Project
Between 2015 and 2017, the US Army Corps of Engineers executed a thorough recovery operation to remove the CSS Georgia’s remains from the Savannah River, clearing the obstruction for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project’s channel deepening and widening initiatives.
The mission’s historical significance demanded specialized recovery techniques adapted to zero-visibility conditions, where divers conducted circle searches using knotted rope during 314 total dives.
Zero-visibility diving required knotted rope circle searches across 314 dives to recover historically significant Civil War naval artifacts from the riverbed.
You’ll find the operation recovered:
- Five naval cannon alongside both steam cylinders and a single propeller from the ironclad’s propulsion system
- The south casemate section, representing the largest surviving portion of the vessel’s armored superstructure
- 32,782 artifacts totaling 440 tons of material, including 153 small arms rounds of varying caliber
This archaeological intervention preserved Confederate naval engineering while enabling modern commerce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Any Gold Actually Discovered Inside the CSS Georgia Wreck?
No gold discovery occurred among the CSS Georgia’s 30,000+ recovered artifacts, debunking treasure hunting myths. You’ll find Confederate treasury movements were meticulously documented through 1881 accounting, revealing no hidden millions aboard the scuttled ironclad warship.
Did the Ladies’ Gunboat Association Receive Compensation After the War?
No compensation claims from the Ladies’ Gunboat Association appear in war aftermath records. You’ll find their donations were considered patriotic contributions without repayment expectations, as captured Confederate vessels remained U.S. Navy property post-war.
What Happened to Lieutenant Gwathmey After Scuttling the Vessel?
What became of the commander? Unfortunately, Gwathmey’s fate remains undocumented in available records. His post-scuttling career vanished into historical silence—Confederate naval archives offer no verified accounts of his subsequent military service or civilian activities after December 1864.
Are Artifacts From CSS Georgia Displayed in Museums Today?
You’ll find CSS Georgia artifacts displayed at Columbus’s National Civil War Naval Museum, which received over 20 conserved pieces from the Navy. The Savannah River exhibits showcase weaponry, personal items, and ship components recovered during harbor expansion operations.
How Much Did the 2015 Recovery Operation Cost Taxpayers?
You’ll find the cost analysis shows $14 million for excavation and conservation, representing approximately 2% taxpayer impact of the total $653 million Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, funded through U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appropriations.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Georgia_(1863)
- https://nautarch.tamu.edu/crl-projects/css-georgia/
- https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/css-savannah/
- https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/georgia.html
- https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/Recent/Article-View/Article/2686621/a-rare-recovery-css-georgia/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXq9deBHM5c
- https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/02/23/past-and-present-the-css-georgia/
- https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2018/02/css-georgia-documentary-goes-deep-into.html
- https://oldsaltblog.com/pride-of-the-ladies-gunboat-association-css-georgia-artifacts-recovered/
- https://www.discoveramericablog.com/post/old-fort-jackson
