UM-Dearborn archaeology students dig at the River Raisin battlefield
With the help of the 200-year-old bullets discovered by John Chenoweth and his archaeology students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in Monroe, they can tell the story of one of the most momentous battles on what is now American soil.
From their shape, archaeologists can determine whether the lead bullets discarded during the Battle of River Raisin in January 1813 were perhaps dropped by a young, panicked soldier, shot into the wall of a building, or fired at the opposing side as Americans fought British and Native American forces in the War of 1812.
Chenoweth, an associate professor of anthropology at UM-Dearborn, is leading a group of students on a project to excavate artifacts from the two Battles of River Raisin. The second battle was the deadliest conflict for Americans in the War of 1812 and was later used as justification for the forced relocation of Native Americans through the Indian Removal Act.
“The War of 1812 sometimes gets pushed off the center stage and doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” Chenoweth said. “The war in this part of the world and this battle was one of the centerpieces of it.”
Of the 934 American soldiers who fought in the Second Battle of River Raisin, only 33 escaped. The rest died, were wounded or taken prisoner of war, according to the River Raisin National Battlefield Park.
Since 2019, Chenoweth has offered field courses at the site, allowing students to gain hands-on experience on Fridays during the fall semester at an active archaeological dig along East Elm Avenue in Monroe. The property and the uncovered artifacts are owned by the city.
Their work, the River Raisin Archaeological Project, received additional support Wednesday through a $169,121 grant from the National Park Service as part of its American Battlefield Protection Program.
“Historic battlefields and sites of armed conflict are powerful reminders of the shared heritage of all Americans,” the Park Service said in a press release announcing the grant. “To learn from and heal from the past, the NPS promotes the preservation and interpretation of these important sites.”
Chenoweth hopes that the funding will advance the project and lead to new insights.
“I think this grant will help us pick up the pace a little bit in finding some of the original structures,” he said. “We definitely have traces of the battle and material from the 18th century. We know we’re in the right place, but we still need to find specific structures, and I think that’s something we can do in the future with this grant.”
River Raisin National Battlefield Park was established in 2009 thanks to a congressional resolution pushed by the late U.S. Rep. John Dingell, said Mark Cochran, director of Monroe Economic and Community Development. The community then developed a plan for the battlefield that called for the city to purchase historic sites from private owners, build a visitor center to educate people about the landmark, create a network of bike trails and honor the site’s history in other ways.
Some of those goals were quickly realized, Cochran said.
The city purchased and demolished more than 20 private residential properties on East Elm Avenue surrounding the battlefield. It also made space in a former ice arena for the National Park Service to operate a battlefield visitor center on North Dixie Highway. The battlefield has a historical trail that tells visitors what they would have seen if they were in the Frenchtown settlement at the time of the battles.
The city and partners like the River Raisin National Battlefield Park Foundation hope to one day create “living history” by building a replica of the former settlement so people can understand what life was like there in 1813.
The archaeological work of the UM-Dearborn students was important to the development of this exhibition, Cochran said.
The goal of historical archaeology is to tell the story of people who, not by chance, wrote conscientious diary entries, Chenoweth said. Many people living in the Frenchtown settlement at the time of the fighting were illiterate, he said. The small fragments of daily life unearthed during excavations, such as pottery shards, shot or pipes, will help explain what life was like there.
“We’re trying to shed light on the events of those three momentous days in January 1813,” he said. “I think we’ll be able to talk about things that aren’t written down in that sense, about who was where, which units were where, because things like the caliber of muskets and rifle bullets they used were a little different between the British and the American forces.”
“So I think we’ll be able to talk about the events of that day in a way that’s difficult to record. Battlefields are never clearly recorded because no one can see the entire battle at the same moment.”
The archaeologists also help with construction projects to ensure that no artifacts are accidentally dug up and discarded, Cochran said.
“This partnership goes far beyond the students and also ensures that we are good stewards of the truly historic property we have acquired,” he said.
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