21stTNCav said:
You know SP, I do not feel so bad about digging in a battlefield. It is against the law, and therefore you do those things at your own risk, but it is not the same in my book as a marked grave and those relics are not on top of a dead body, usually at least. Digging up the known resting place of a solider, Union or Confederate, for monetary gain is another matter entirely. Simple as it goes, get a rope!!!!
Oh I agree totally, 21st!
The battlefield is definitely "hallowed ground" (albeit in name only, to be honest) out of the respect for those that gave everything for what they believed in, granted.
The cemetery on the other hand, is
sacred ground in actuality and therefore should never be desecrated.
It is impossible to desecrate that which has never been consecrated.
There are fallen soldiers on most "Fields of Honor" no doubt, and if someone is aware of where the bodies are and dig anyway; cemetery rules apply.
Apples and oranges, I reckon.
I see absolutely
no moral difference between detecting a battle site for relics that will be treasured or sold (if not by the hunter, by the person that eventually owns the relic/s) than the sorry fed gov selling the land that was taken at one time for "preservation purposes", to some group (llc, corp, inds, etc...) to build a hotel or fast food joint on top of the fallen!!
In fact, I much prefer that detectorists dig it (NOT "state archaeologists", for too often they are greedy "grave robbers" that come off as a sick perverted joke, in my opinion)
than it be lost forever!
SkyPilot