Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc.: Consulting Services for the Study of Earth and Man

Geophysical Survey of the Widow Gibson Cabin

On Oct. 8, 1862, the Widow Gibson's homestead near Perryville, Kentucky, became the center of intense attention as the Civil War battle of Perryville raged around it and her barn which was even depicted by period artists (figure 1, right). Through the hot, dry afternoon, the Union and Confederate forces disputed bitterly and indecisively for the fields surrounding her home. By evening the Union troops had been pushed west leaving the Confederates in possession of the field. Prudently the southerners withdrew during the night rather than face renewed battle the next day. Badly shot up that afternoon, the Widow Gibson's house was pulled down shortly after the battle although her barn remained standing until the 1880s.

A magnetometer survey of the approximate location of the Widow Gibson cabin was completed as a stage in the archaeological investigation of the site by Dr. Nancy Ross-Stallings and Richard Stallings of Cultural Horizons, Inc. and students from Center College in 1998. This survey pinpointed the location of her home (figure 2, left). Magnetically her cabin appears as a confused jumble of magnetic highs and lows (large white rectangle). Evidently the structure was a log cabin. The signal is created by stone rubble (low magnetic) associated with a chimney and periodic stone footers for the log structure. Mixed in with it are metal signals reflecting historic artifacts associated with the ruined structure. Two prominent signals below the cabin are metal grid markers. Distinctive, light, magnetic "highs" in the lower right hand of the survey area are probably the location of burned tree stumps. A magnetic "high" angling from the cabin towards the upper left hand corner of the surveyed area represents the axis of a gully. An outbuilding may be represented by the signal enclosed with a small white rectangle.