Bones on USC campus might date from Civil War

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Workers repairing an underground steam pipe at the University of South Carolina in Columbia found human bone fragments where a Civil War hospital once treated injured soldiers.

The State reported that Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said Monday that the fragments are probably from the Civil War.

Watts says the find is being investigated initially as a crime scene. The coroner’s office and the State Law Enforcement Division are excavating the steam pipe trench and examining the soil.

The coroner says he expects to know Tuesday if the remains are from the Civil War era. He has an anthropologist working on the case. Watts says the bones could be amputated body parts.

The fragments were found behind DeSaussure College, the second oldest building on campus. It was completed in 1809.