North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics
Abstract/Summary:
Project Name: Mount Comfort Church, AR;
Reference: On-going research;
The Mount Comfort Church was constructed of brick in the 1840s. The Confederate newspaper The War Bulletin describes the Confederate Mount Comfort Hospital and the deaths of 12 men in January 1862. It likely served as one of the 14 field hospitals used by the Union after the Battle of Prairie Grove in December, 1862. One such building is noted as "the brick church," but unfortunately we don't know whether or not this is the Mount Comfort Church. We do know the building burned. Oral history relates that bricks from the building were salvaged by Union troops to build barracks in Fayetteville, probably in 1863 or 1864 when the town was being fortified. Test excavations by Jerry Hilliard of the Arkansas Archeological Survey revealed brick walls less than 35 cm deep, thousands of machine cut nails, all burned, and stove parts.
Geophysical surveys were conducted at the church from 2000-2001 in a collaborated effort by the University of Arkansas (including students enrolled in a "Near Surface Prospection" class), and the Arkansas Archeological Survey. Magnetic gradiometry, electrical resistivity, and ground-penetrating radar techniques have all been used to successfully detect the buried foundation.