In 1862, a group of 22 women, 5 of whom were Jewish, led a successful fundraising effort to create an ironclad warship for the Confederate Navy. The Massachusetts-born composer of “Jingle Bells” even played a role!  The ship, officially named the Georgia but referred to by locals as “The Ladies’ Ironclad,” was intentionally sunk by its crew when Union general William T. Sherman arrived at the end of his “March to the Sea.” It remained on the bottom of the murky Savannah River until it was raised by archeologists to make way for a harbor deepening project more than a century and a half later. The resulting salvage effort recovered more than 30,000 artifacts and helped rewrite the story of this little-known vessel.

Historian and filmmaker Michael Jordan wrote a master’s thesis on the ship in 2006 and was hired in 2015 to produce the official U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documentary on the raising of the wreck.  Michael also contributed a chapter to the official archeological report detailing new information about early efforts to salvage the Georgia immediately after the war.

In this one-session class, Michael will share the surprising, enjoyable, and fascinating story of this most unusual warship.