Civil war items found in my back yard

[Jasonp]

Hello everyone. I have been lurking for a few years now. I was first introduced to metal detecting about 12 years ago, my buddy had the detector, a guy from work had a small rental house he owned which was less than a 1/2 mile from a civil war federal land mark, so we figured what the heck…. Hunted all day nothing, decided to go to the biggest tree on the property and for whatever reason we found 4 or 5 civil war bullets right at the end of the day, very cool…. Fast forward 9 or 10 years my dad retired and moved out to the country so I both think a detector for Christmas was nothing special only a couple hundred bucks. He lives right across from a civil war plantation which I believe also served as a hospital at one time during the war ( according to the owners now ). Two years go I moved into the country and bought a small piece of land which is within a half mile of a civil war battle at the end of the war, another roughly another half mile the other direction the Union soldiers camped overnight while the confederates were fleeing…. We tried my dads detector here mainly to get him out of the house and because I would love to find civil war objects on my property, not much luck with that… so I bought my own detector and wow for the money spent it is amazing, we can’t go 10 feet sometimes without another hit. The builder who we bought the house from said his son had hit the ground some and find an old gun behind his other house here ( most people around here have a lot more land than my 13 acres )…. Last winter I spent a lot of time online researching the battle and all I wanted to do is prove they were battling on my actual property…. Spring 2021 we get out and Shockingly my wife was the first to find a bullet in our field. I then found one. More recently my dad was able to find his first bullet here as well. Now I am on to two main goals. 1. To find something like a belt buckle. 2 to find a nice old coin or something with a date ( that is the best part to me being able to tell how long something has been there and date it )… after doing more research this winter and reading a lot of first hand accounts of the battle here I pulled out the detector and found properly the coolest thing right in my back field , what I believe to be a bullet they melted down and used as a poker chip……. I looked into the woods more and said ok I can see this ridge and where we have found most items so far let me now go back through the woods some… I was then able to knock the buckle ( actually believe it is from the ammunition holder ) off the list along with these three other bullets within 10 ft, one which I believe hit something, then an unidentifiable button

I hope you enjoyed , hope many more finds to come if these were still there after 150 years there has to be plenty left !!

Jason

 

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[Back-of-the-boat]

Great find on that plate. Here is a thought and maybe a possibility during the retreat if there was an elevated track during the time of the war, they could have blown the tracks to stop supplies or just for strategic reasons and the parts and pieces you find uphill from the track is from the tracks being destroyed back then, a way to kind of confirm that would be check the distance, then detect with permission the same distance away from the tracks in all directions if you find similar items around the same distance away from the tracks it could indicate an explosion took place, but take into consideration the lay of the land, if areas are flat things could be farther away than what was on the hill, as nothing blocked them from flying further away, as the hill could have stopped the trajectory being a higher object than the surrounding landscape. Just a thought. Could explain the items being up there. Good luck on your hunts.

 

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[Jasonp]

Great find on that plate. Here is a thought and maybe a possibility during the retreat if there was an elevated track during the time of the war, they could have blown the tracks to stop supplies or just for strategic reasons and the parts and pieces you find uphill from the track is from the tracks being destroyed back then, a way to kind of confirm that would be check the distance, then detect with permission the same distance away from the tracks in all directions if you find similar items around the same distance away from the tracks it could indicate an explosion took place, but take into consideration the lay of the land, if areas are flat things could be farther away than what was on the hill, as nothing blocked them from flying further away, as the hill could have stopped the trajectory being a higher object than the surrounding landscape. Just a thought. Could explain the items being up there. Good luck on your hunts.

Thanks for the information and advice. Through all of my research so far I can’t tell if the tracks were ever blown up or not, just that both sides were basically trying to take or hold the rail road.

Maybe I should take better pictures or post in the other section to see if anyone has any idea on what the item is in pictures I labeled RR1 RR2 RR3 earlier in this thread…. I found that the first year we moved here it is very heavy and I searched every old rail photograph I can find , but can’t find anything like that, but it was found toward the bottom hill from the tracks buried close to a foot down, so I think it had been there a long time.

I really believe their are probably hundreds of relics on my property still, but I really try to narrow the search zone. I don’t know if I should dig through all the rail road stuff , dig through all of the nails and what seems to be farming items , or try areas where none of that stuff should be….. I would imagine search grids and do little by little would be best , but I am telling you all I can’t fire up my director and go 5 minutes without having some target , and my personality doesn’t let me just leave items if I find it I dig it every time.

Yesterday the weather was nice so I took the detector out for 30 minutes and dug four items. Two were pieces of what I would imagine are more modern pieces or metal or bullet fragments , one was a chrome Ford center cap which I have no clue how or why it was back there tractors don’t have hubcaps/center caps….. then I found one item I would swear is some sort of animal shoe ? but not sure I can’t find it online either …I believe it is more modern but here is a picture of it

Jason