Super Find Mark!! As has been noted, he was a Private in Co. K and listed in the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System by the National Park Service. WTG, Q.
Great find. It is so dang rare to get a name and unit on that civil war stuff. Great find sir. I am guessing he lost it maybe even digging that trench. Congratulations
An untimely death for this hero and young man. It's amazing to be able to put a photograph with the ring you just found in such a short timeframe. Certainly a significant historic find and definitely an amazingly banner worthy find. All too often we see Civil War artifacts posted which are out of context with the men who were on the battlefield. Your find and the great research by Jones Indiana have established a true personal context! I do hope that you can locate the family of this man and return this precious artifact! Keep us posted on this amazing discovery!
But now, I'm confused. I've been hunting for more years than I wanta count and I have NEVER even HEARD of such rings. With all the Civil War finds I've ever read about, not once! How's come, NOBODY seems to have heard of these? Let alone found one?
Not downplaying one of the truly most awesome finds I've ever seen, just taken aback and curious.
Mark, look at #s 6 & 7. This is from Stanley Phillips Supplement I CW book that's out of print. #6 is captioned "Silver identification ring. Engraved "P. Hines Co. G W. VA Vols". #7 is engraved "Sergt. Joseph F Friend Co. K 3rd MD PHB' (PHB designates Potomac Home Guard). Yours is the first that I have ever seen dug. Q.
Haha Quinn ur awesome... I'm very excited to find that ring it the first pice of silver I have ever found and to be one of a kind pice of history ( only one mans ring ) I could have never asked for more and as you said I have seen some badges dug but never a ring it was in my hand and I was skeptical
Banner all the way ! I am stunned to just now be finding out about these -( Apparently most of the other respondants are too ! ) must be darn few
of these ever found - because there are mountains of every other kind of Civil War relic and artifact dug and posted on this site .
It is amazing to see how quickly the history of this can be put together by the people on this forum. Especially since no one has ever heard of or seen these rings. The history lesson I have learned here is priceless. Thank you to everyone involved in getting the information on here so quickly.