Camp Lawton was a Confederate camp that imprisoned about 10,000 Union soldiers after it opened in October 1864 to replace the infamous Andersonville prison. It was open only about six weeks before Sherman's army arrived and burned it during his march from Atlanta to Savannah.
The soldiers and prisoners abandoned the camp in a hurry, after being rousted out in the middle of the night and loaded onto trains. As a result, they didn't have much time to pack and load everything. They mostly grabbed what the could and abandoned the rest. 150 years later, archaeologists are finding all sorts of historical items at the newly-discovered site, including rings, buckles, coins and other keepsakes as well as a lot more.
You can read more about these discoveries in an article by Russ Bynum of the Associated Press at http://goo.gl/dybLP.
My thanks to Keith Hunter for telling me about these new discoveries.
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