CONFEDERATE CEMETARY ROBBED!

[Bradley137]

I saw on the news last night where a neighboring county man was caught digging in the confederate graveyard. He was arrested and his bounty confiscated. No wonder we're getting a bad rap and lots of places are banning our hobby. Any other morons out there? Just go ahead and shoot yourself in the head.

 

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[Sky Pilot]

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

 

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[Sky Pilot]

@ Shortstack:
@ Adventure Wolf: Agreed!
@ Chark21798: Hi, Mark! I agree my friend! (And I believe the yankee thing was just to tease y'all, because there are good and bad in both Yanks and Rebs, as I'm sure everyone will agree! )

Regards All!

SkyPilot

 

[Tnmountains]

I was in Arkansas last week and went to the Pea Ridge battlefield. I was talking to the ranger about places to metal detect outside of the park(got a few leads but family time didnt allow any hunting) when we started chatting about people digging on national parks and someone in Georgia just got caught doing the same thing.

Unfortunately they find where they've been digging a lot down at Chickamauga Battlefield.

Of course, they are surrounded by detector shops!!

It is true that around Chickamauga , Chattanooga and Murfreesboro they are surrounded by relic shops and metal detecting stores. But only idiots and scum bags hunt in the parks. Many of the areas around and outside of the parks are also known battlefields and skirmish sites and with proper permission can be hunted. My house and neighborhood is located on a rear defense where many died and I dig bullets from my yard. They work hard to keep looting down and I am glad. The Guy at Chickamauga was digging bullets with a shovel. No metal detector. He will do jail time according to the paper.
Grave robbing from any time frame is just bad news as is hunting a Park.
Last year a guy was putting in a garden and turned up a soldier buried in his yard. The soldier was reentered with full military honors. With his buttons and buckles.
If you research many battles you will know that the boots and any clothing, belts buttons and such were taken from the dead to be used again.The way it was if your boots were gone and a pair was to be had you got them. Following the Army's and in the army were always the robbers and scavengers even among the men. Many diary accounts spoke of seeing them in the moon light stripping and robbing the dead. Many were shot if caught. The soldiers collected many relics. They disassembled Cravens house on Lookout Mtn for souvenirs after what they called the battle above the clouds.The house survived the attack but the soldiers took it home piece by piece
Good post and I agree with everything except Chickamauga Battlefield being dug a lot.
I am sorry to hear of the desecration to your family. "Hang em High".

 

[ivan salis]

i think that anyone caught digging up the dead in a graveyard to loot the bodies (grave robbing)should be buried alive in a coffin with the person 's body they dug up -- and that they should be made to redig the grave used to do it with at gun point .-- locked in till judgement day with the dead you dishonored -- your very last final breaths full of the the reeking foul dead body odor of your "victim" in close contact with them--a very fitting punishment in my veiw -- hanging is too kind for scum like that.

 

[LJHanley06]

As horrendous as this is...if these fellas had a college degree they would be called Archeologists.

 

[Sky Pilot]

@ Tn Mountains:
I made the comment about the park being surrounded by detector stores, and "dug in" as a "tongue in cheek" comment; I don't know of anyone who has dug in the "Off Limits" zone, so to speak.
But there always seems to be some "archaeologist" on the news (as I'm sure you've noticed), griping about the "people who steal from future generations by digging where they have no business digging", that's why I put the "don't know" faces there.
Thanks for the kind words!

 

[Sky Pilot]

i think that anyone caught digging up the dead in a graveyard to loot the bodies (grave robbing)should be buried alive in a coffin with the person 's body they dug up -- and that they should be made to redig the grave used to do it with at gun point .-- locked in till judgement day with the dead you dishonored -- your very last final breaths full of the the reeking foul dead body odor of your "victim" in close contact with them--a very fitting punishment in my veiw -- hanging is too kind for scum like that.

I agree with that, Ivan!

As horrendous as this is...if these fellas had a college degree they would be called Archeologists.

Now that's what I've been saying!

Regards All!
SkyPilot

 

[Tnmountains]

@ Tn Mountains:
I made the comment about the park being surrounded by detector stores, and "dug in" as a "tongue in cheek" comment; I don't know of anyone who has dug in the "Off Limits" zone, so to speak.
But there always seems to be some "archaeologist" on the news (as I'm sure you've noticed), griping about the "people who steal from future generations by digging where they have no business digging", that's why I put the "don't know" faces there.
Thanks for the kind words!

I am with you Sky Pilot. I just know how hard the park guys do work at keeping looters out. It does happen I am sure and probably more people get away with it than get caught. I bike out there and saw a guy come out of the woods with a metal detector and an old axe head. I watched him get into a semi truck and drive away. I think some people are just so dumb they have no idea.
Something that has stuck in my mind for many years was this old farmer we met looking for a dove field. He had cut his corn and gave us permission to hunt and use the barn for shade. In the barn were Civil war grave markers. I asked him why they were there and he said his father moved them cause he kept hitting them with the tractor out in the fields and he did not now know where they went. I have often thought of going back out to Ooltewah and seeing if I could locate that farm again. I was just a kid then with a drivers lisc but even then it seemed weird.
Here we have a National Cemetary . I think it is second to Arlington in size... Both my parents are buried there as are many Union soldiers. Confederate soldiers were not allowed to be buried there at that time that is why we have so many mass graves with a single stone that will read something like "21 Unknown confederate soldiers".
Sorry to ramble on your post Bradley and again sorry to hear about the Vandals.

 

[txconservative]

That is the pits !

Last year two boys from Houston disturbed a site and stole a skull and made a bong out of it....

WTF ? ? Who really wants to do that !!!

 

[21stTNCav]

That is the pits !

Last year two boys from Houston disturbed a site and stole a skull and made a bong out of it....

WTF ? ? Who really wants to do that !!!

A bong? Geeeze, just take the little dimwits, strip em down to their skivies (in Jan) and set em out to picking up trash in the median of the loop!!

 

[Sky Pilot]

That's sick, for sure!

And I'm disgusted by it same as y'all..........

But I gotta confess; I'm also curious as heck about how those boys got it to hold water??!??!



SkyPilot

 

[Tnmountains]

That's sick, for sure!

And I'm disgusted by it same as y'all..........

But I gotta confess; I'm also curious as heck about how those boys got it to hold water??!??!



SkyPilot

That is funny !!

 

[hanoverdigger]

That's a real shame. How low can a person go to recover a relic? I hope this fellow gets some SERIOUS jail time!!

 

[Sky Pilot]

That's a real shame. How low can a person go to recover a relic? I hope this fellow gets some SERIOUS jail time!!

Glad you feel that way, HanoverDigger!

By the way; WELCOME TO TREASURENET!!



SkyPilot

 

[knack4iron]

Gents.......Times are getting hard and gonna get alot harder. YOur going to be seeing more of this.As long as prices continue to climb this lead,iron and brass is the 2nd best thing to gold. Some people will do whatever it takes to survive.

 

[21stTNCav]

Gents.......Times are getting hard and gonna get alot harder. YOur going to be seeing more of this.As long as prices continue to climb this lead,iron and brass is the 2nd best thing to gold. Some people will do whatever it takes to survive.

Well that's OK, cause I have some lead of my own and I will give it away for free!! If you want it let me catch you coming out of the cemetery in Milledgeville TN with a detector and shovel. I am sure an immediate lead delivery could be arraigned.

On other related items, again digging in a National park is against the law and if you get caught lord help ya cause I aint. This being said I do not put it in the same light as grave robbing. A good example is Shiloh NMP. If I saw you coming out of the woods with a shovel there I most likely would not say anything. If I saw you walking from a disturbed Confederate burial trench with a shovel on that same park you had better hope the park rangers are around to pull me off. Nuff said. Let the honored dead lay honorably in state......OR A POX ON YOU AND YER KIN FOR 10 GENERATIONS!!!