An archaeological project at UT to document the Battle of Fort Sanders will kick off with a forum to garner public input about the initiative.
The forum will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, May 21, in the auditorium of the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Members of the UT Archaeological Research Lab will give an overview of the project’s goals and research design.
The lab last year received a $45,130 American Battlefield Protection Program grant from the National Park Service to document the Battle of Fort Sanders using geographic information systems and remote sensing in an effort to better understand what resources remain, how they can be preserved, and how they can be shared with the public.
The lab’s researchers have been consulting Civil War-era maps of earthworks around Knoxville, as well as various other documents, to determine the historic landscape of the battle. They will then compare these with current maps and aerial photographs, and record the locations of known resources such as the Bleak House and the Confederate trench at Morgan Hill—now home to Sorority Village. They will also search for possible remnants of features that may be present below grassy or paved areas, particularly on the UT campus.
To learn more about the UT Archaeological Research Laboratory, visit the website.
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C O N T A C T:
Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)
Kandi Hollenbach (865-974-9647, kdh@utk.edu)