Recovered Civil War Era Bayonet - Electrolytic Conservation of Iron Artifacts

Due to the nature of the find, any contextual analysis of the artifact would be purely speculative. The bayonet was recovered from a deep excavation pit which contained several layers of artificial fill which had, over time, been added on top of the natural strata of the original ground surface. Without out knowing the exact positioning within the layers it can not be determined if the artifact was in its original place of deposition or it was brought in as part of the fill.

The area of Fort Lee on which the bayonet was discovered is known to be well to the east of where the Union and Confederate lines where entrenched during the siege of Petersburg. During the war, the land currently occupied by Fort Lee was used by the Union Army to support troops on the front lines. If the bayonet was, in fact, recovered from its original resting spot then it may have been simply dropped by an advancing Union soldier or supply wagon. Again, these are merely assumptions based on the known historical context of the surrounding area.

Inspection of the bayonet suggests that it is probably not a good candidate for conservation.