CSS Georgia: Raising of a Legend

Savannah’s bustling harbor is currently the scene of a major historical salvaging operation that is continually surprising experts.  While taking on a major dredging of the river to accommodate bigger and bigger ships,  it’s taken on the task of raising the CSS Georgia, an ironclad warship built in 1862.  Back then the cost was $115,000 raised by The Ladies Gunboat Association.

The CSS Georgia had only been in active duty  for 20 months when it’s own crew sank it to keep it out of the hands of the Union army that was closing in on Savannah.   It’s believed that though the CSS Georgia protected the city and Fort Jackson but never fired a shot from it’s guns.  You can follow CNN’s coverage of the raising of the cannons by the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/21/us/savannah-georgia-civil-war-ironclad/

Though the ship’s armor was salvaged in 1866, the hull was subsequently destroyed by blasts separating the armor from the hull.  What’s left are hundreds of civil artifacts to reclaim from the river.  CNN covered more of the salvage efforts on the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/21/us/divers-navy-georgia-savannah-civil-war-ironclad/index.html