Salve Regina CHP program awarded federal grant to support historic battlefield

An engraving by Peter Schenk illustrates the Sadkeche Fight, a battle associated with the Yamasee War in South Carolina. / COURTESY SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES
An engraving by Peter Schenk illustrates the Sadkeche Fight, a battle associated with the Yamasee War in South Carolina. / COURTESY SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES

NEWPORT – Salve Regina University’s Cultural and Historic Preservation program has been awarded a $39,000 grant from the National Park Service recently to conduct a site documentation project on a historic battlefield in South Carolina.

Administered by the NPS’s Battlefield Protection Program, the federal grant is one of 20 awarded nationally, totaling $1.2 million, to support efforts that protect and preserve significant American battlefield lands.

Salve Regina students participating in the CHP program will conduct a site documentation project for the Sadkeche Fight, a battle associated with the little-known Yamasee War (1715-1717) in South Carolina.

“No one has ever located a battlefield from the Yamasee War, and unlike the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, we do not have a great deal of historical records to rely upon,” said Assistant Professor Jon Marcoux, who applied for the grant. “There is a lot of work to do, and Salve students will play a central part in the project, which is very much in line with our program’s emphasis on hands-on learning. There is no better teacher than experience.”

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Marcoux and his students intend on researching the battle and its possible site with an array of historical documents in order to find contemporary accounts of the battle. In addition, they will search for historical maps of the region where the battle took place. Then, they will use geographic information system software to match historic maps with modern maps.

The purpose of this site documentation is to identify the probable location of where the Sadkeche Fight occurred. “This sets up a future project where we actually go out and try to find physical evidence of the battle in the form of early 18th century military artifacts like musket balls, gun parts, buckles, etc.,” Marcoux stated. “Once we find the actual battlefield location, we can begin to take steps to protect it through community outreach and engagement.”

This project shows students of the CHP program how archaeology, history, geography and historic preservation harmonize.

The American Battlefield Protection Program funds projects conducted by federal, state, local and tribal governments, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. This year’s grants will fund projects for endangered battlefields from the Hawaiian Civil Wars, Indian Wars, Revolutionary War, French and Indian War, World War II, War of 1812 and the Civil War. The ABPP and its partners have helped to protect and preserve more than 100 battlefields by co-sponsoring 559 projects in 42 states and territories totaling $18,442,955 in federal grant money.

In 2015, Salve Regina students partnered with the Middletown Historical Society on a project to define in detail the location of Colonial and British fortifications involved in the siege of Newport. The siege was one of the largest military operations of the American Revolution. The project is still ongoing and will proceed through summer 2017.

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