1st Civil War relic (Infantry button)

[callmez]

I grew up detecting with my Dad in Iowa during the '70s, and reading all the treasure hunting magazines that came to the house. We found a bunch of old coins and some jewelry but I always wanted to find Civil War relics like those I read about. There just wasn't much of it to be found up there.

Fast forward to the present, I now live in East Tennessee and last year I got inspired and picked up a Tesoro Vaquero -- don't have much time to hunt but once in a while I can get out for a few hours. A friend has an old farm she'll be selling soon, located about a mile from a CW battlefield, so I've been checking it out. Found lots of rusty farm iron, misc junk, modern bullets and modern coins, nothing really interesting... and then on Father's Day I dug up this infantry coat button near the old farmhouse and 6-7" down. Just a little gilt left in the crevices. Backmark is Goddard & Bro - Extra.


I'm thrilled to finally check that one off the bucket list -- it took 40 years or so but I finally got it done! Now if I could just get the coil over a seated coin or large cent...

 

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[tennessee digger]

That is a GREAT way to start. Eagle I.

 

[sutphin]

CALLMEZ STAND BY FOR THE EAGLE HAS LANDED ....NICE INFANTRY BUTTON.

 

[relic nut]

Great job, first CW relic I found after a few bullets was an eagle I. I was shaking so bad I could hardly hold on to it. I'll never forget that find, nor will you. It's like killing your first deer. Congrats!!!

 

[JimK]

I was the Exact same way. Having spent most of my time in Southern CA and West Texas there was never a chance for the Civil War stuff. But after 40+ years I did find some. My first was not as good as yours, I found a dropped .58 cal three ringer. That eagle I button is a killer find for sure. Congrats.

JimK

 

[DiggerinVA]

Great job, first CW relic I found after a few bullets was an eagle I. I was shaking so bad I could hardly hold on to it. I'll never forget that find, nor will you. It's like killing your first deer. Congrats!!!

my first CW relic after a few round balls was a breast plate.....i was shaking the same way.....and my very first coin was a 1953 Rosie! Only found 1 plate since then and it was about a year till i found my second silver coin. Congrats on the Eagle "I"....very nice!

 

[tennessee]

Great find. Great story. Father's Day you say. What a wonderful, exciting hobby. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Pacivilwarluke]

Wow that's a nice button, very good backmark! wTG!!

 

[callmez]

Thank you all for the replies. Here are photos of it after some more cleaning (following procedures described here). Maybe a little better...

 

[ringking76]

Your braver than i am,i was to scared to try to clean mine.yours came out looking good.congrats its an amazing find

 

[callmez]

Your braver than i am,i was to scared to try to clean mine.yours came out looking good.congrats its an amazing find

Thanks ringking, I read up on doing initial cleaning with a toothpick when I got it home, did that (might have worked it a little too hard) and then looked at it for a couple of weeks before I finally decided to go ahead and try aluminum jelly. Wish that I'd had something similar to practice on first, but in the end I hope I didn't hurt it too much. I wanted it to be obvious what it was when one looked at it, the contrast between the eagle and the background makes a big difference to me. And it's nice to see a little gilt.

I keep working the site but aside from a very few items (broken late 1800s harness buckle, approx .56 cal. lead ball, maybe a couple of iron objects) I'm not finding much that's really old -- oldest coin is a 1934 wheatie. With older coins eluding me so far and some relatively modern stuff being quite deep, I bit the bullet and am awaiting delivery of a pair of Killer B's to replace my current cheesy headphones in hopes that I will better hear weak signals. Last weekend I dug up a flat button with a backmark that I believe dates to 1836-1848, in a different area, so I still have some things to try in hopes of finding more goodies.

It has been fun to have free reign here, it's a rather large property with a variety of different types of situations, and I was able to research the land pretty well before I ever set foot on it. Just an old farm, really, seems too far from the path of the CW troops -- but the land was part of a larger tract that was occupied from the early 1800s. Now if I could just determine where the home/s might have been located, prior to 1880... if they were even on this part of the original tract... maybe near where the flat button turned up?