Secret Witch Bottles Unearthed at Confederate Fort Reveal Dark Civil War Rituals of Union Soldiers
For director of the university’s Center for Archaeological Research (WMCAR) Joe Jones, it wasn’t initially clear what his colleagues had found.
“It was this glass bottle full of nails, broken, but all there, near an old brick hearth,” said Jones. “We thought it was unusual, but weren’t sure what it was.”
Discovered next to the remains of a hearth built by Union troops between 1862 and 1865, the nails inside had “corroded into a ball.” The broken-off top was seemingly the only significant damage the artifact had endured in the last 150 years.
The dig itself was conducted when it became clear that a Transportation Department project on Interstate 64 might damage or destroy any undiscovered artifacts in the area — a very real possibility considering that Redoubt 9 had been occupied by both Confederate and Union during the war.
Experts initially wondered whether the bottle might’ve been used as a vessel to hold nails, but numerous factors pointed toward a more superstitious use.
“Witch bottles are the type of things people would use more generally in famine, political strife, or feeling under threat,” said Jones. “The Union troops were definitely under all those kinds of existential threats or fears.”
Library of CongressA painting depicting the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862. The Union occupied the area after defeating the Confederates.
Though Jones is adamant that the bottle’s use remains merely a theory, the location, contents, and historical context of the find have him rather convinced.
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