Civil War weapons — including bullets, cannonballs and rusty swords — are among the debris pulled from the Congaree River in South Carolina during a year-long cleanup project targeting toxic coal tar on the waterway's banks.
The Civil War era haul wasn't surprising to Sean Norris, archaeological program manager at environmental consulting firm TRC. Previous underwater investigation "indicated the presence of multiple types of cannonballs and projectiles as well as hundreds, if not thousands of musket rounds," Norris told Live Science in an email.
