Spanish Invasion to British Southern Campaign: Multi-Component Battlefield Heritage Inventory at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site (BTFA) is a 120-acre National Register of Historic Places historic district (NRHP ID: 78001932) on the western bank of North Carolina?s (NC) Lower Cape Fear River Estuary. Situated on North Carolina?s only river with direct access to the Atlantic Ocean, BTFA was in the location of three major conflicts at different formational periods in United States (US) history: the War of Jenkin?s Ear, the American Revolution, and American Civil War. Each conflict left distinct, residual markers on the landscape in the form of archaeological sites, artifact evidence, and landform alterations. The most readily apparent of these are a series of earthen fortifications forming the Confederate Fort Anderson, built in 1863 to protect the river route to Wilmington, and captured by Union forces in 1865 (Angley 1998: 58). While archaeologists working at the site since the 1960s have identified approximately 65 ruins or features associated with Confederate military occupations and the colonial period, the remains of earlier conflicts are not as well represented (South 2010). A 2024 survey of the historic site?s waterfront identified a possible eighteenth-century shipwreck site along with five colonial-period landings where amphibious raids were conducted by Spanish privateers and British soldiers during the War of Jenkin?s Ear and the American Revolution. The proposed project seeks to review and compile existing datasets and undertake additional field data collection to generate a comprehensive inventory and characterization of sites, features, and artifacts associated with the War of Jenkin?s Ear and American Revolution at BTFA. This project will provide greater contextual history and document battlefield heritage to aid in interpreting lesser-known conflicts at the historic district. The inventory report and GIS database for state and local heritage managers will be made publicly accessible using an ArcGIS StoryMap as a foundational outreach tool to visualize the battlefields at BTFA.

date/time interval

  • September 2025 - August 2028