Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The discovery of the exact location of a stockade and dozens of personal artifacts belonging to its Union prisoners is one of the biggest archaeological Civil War finds in decades, federal and Georgia officials said Monday. Outside of scholars and Civil War buffs, few people have heard of the Confederacy's Camp Lawton, which replaced the infamous and overcrowded Andersonville prison in fall 1864. For nearly 150 years, its exact location was not known, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Southern University said. Georgia Southern students earlier this year began their search at a state park and federal fish hatchery for evidence of the wall timbers and interior buildings.
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NEW: Research will expand knowledge of prisoners' daily life
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Open house will follow Wednesday's formal announcement
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Major archaeological find at site of Civil War prison camp
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Learn more from the Virginia Historical Society
Life at Lawton, described as "foul and fetid," wasn't much better than at Andersonville, with the exception of plentiful water from @placeholder.
None of that happened at @placeholder, where time and its remote location put it on the road to obscurity, fortunately for archaeologists.