Guns of the CSS Peedee

Guns of the CSS Peedee. cast iron - 1860s. , During the Civil War, the Confederate Navy operated a large and well-guarded shipyard on the east bank of the great Pee Dee River at Mars Bluff, Marion County. The largest vessel constructed at the site was the 150 ft. wooden gunship CSS Peedee, built to patrol the river against Union forces and, if necessary, defend Confederate territories along the Atlantic seacoast., As the war drew to a close and the army of General William T. Sherman advanced through South Carolina, Confederate authorities at the naval shipyard ordered the destruction of the CSS Peedee so that its three massive guns would not be turned against the Confederacy by Union forces. For decades, remnants of the sunken vessel remained buried on the river’s bottom., After nearly 150 years under water and 20 years search efforts conducted by multiple agencies, the guns of the CSS Peedee were recovered in 2015 by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. The cannons underwent years of extensive conservation at Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, SC, where they were cleaned and prepared for exhibition here.