Last two days of a Civil War hunt

[smokeythecat]

I was at it the last two days at a camp I have frequented in the past. The place has been hit hard, but there's really no such thing as hunted out. One highlight was a dozer had exposed some soil and some nice CW broken glass was lying about, so I picked most of it up. I also found a small, shallow fire pit which produced three coat Eagle buttons, 1 damaged, and some melted lead.

Left to right: Sharps, two 3 ringers and a Williams cleaner with the base pushed in slightly.

Two iron underwear buttons, four coat eagle buttons, I'm going to "fix" the one, the buttons came out of the same hole and it was a fire pit. The gook from the pit was cemented on the buttons and they are very fragile. Kepi buckle and two porcelain buttons.

Larger pieces of camp lead.

View attachment IMG_0876.jpg Tops to ration cans.

View attachment IMG_0877.jpg First piece of cobalt blue poison bottle I found, pieces to the same octagon medicine bottle.

Part of a "bullseye" canteen and porcelain.

View attachment IMG_0880.jpg Another underwear button, brass lid to small container (ink)? barrell band, which is broken

View attachment IMG_0881.jpg Clay pipe stems, more camp lead and grommet to poncho

View attachment IMG_0882.jpg More camp lead, some of the pieces are only 1/4", more blasted poncho grommets, a few of the nicer nails

I was using two machines, the Deus and an Equinox 600. The Deus found most of the items including all the minies and the eagle buttons. There was so much iron (quarter and nickle sized flat ration can pieces), the Equinox got confused, so it had to have a happy nap. The VDI was all over the place in the spots where the relics were concentrated.

I have been keeping a little of the broken glass lately, it displays well with the other items. The gentleman who owns the property told me when they first moved in they found a lot of dark green bottles lying everywhere.....

 

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[RiverRat3]

Nice finds. I got out today but didn’t have much luck. Was messing around with the GPX at a hunted out spot trying for deeper items.

 

[smokeythecat]

I spent six hours to get this, and never got more than 150' feet from my car! It is getting harder for sure, these items will clean up nicely, right now most are still semi dirty.

 

[pepperj]

Nice assortment of buttons smokey

Good mitt full of lead as well

 

[JBnNC]

Great hunt Smokey, I love the button to bullet ratio....also love seeing the 3-rings in camp lead.--JB

 

[DiggerKid2003]

Great finds as always!

 

[smokeythecat]

Thank you. The one biggest piece of lead is from probably two bullets. The others weigh about as much as one bullet by itself.

 

[Phishfindr]

Very nice finds. Congrats!

 

[BTV Digger]

Nice mid-1800s relics Smokey! I save the nicer square nails also, and they complement any nice collection.

Joh

 

[smokeythecat]

On our colonial sites, we rarely find the rose head nails. Never figured out why not.

 

[Diggin Dude]

Nice finds Smokey ! Love the Minies and the Eagle buttons. Well done, congrats and HH

 

[hbru123]

Awesome finds!! Congrats!!

 

[relic nut]

Nice hunt! I have a few sites that I'd love to see a Dozer pass through.
It's hard to beat bullets and buttons. Congratulations!

 

[smokeythecat]

Here are three of the four eagles cleaned up. The fourth I'm going to try to restore - as much as possible.

I used the Andres' pencils, then waxed them.

View attachment IMG_0883.jpgView attachment IMG_0884.jpgView attachment IMG_0885.jpg

 

[rickb2202]

Wowza!!! Nice finds on a hard worked site! Congrats

 

[smokeythecat]

Thank you. It took about an hour to clean the buttons up. Next step it go order more Riker boxes and put them in there and label after final clean up. And Saturday is getting close!

 

[Phishfarmer]

Great finds. I'm yet to find one of those relic rich fire pits. I've found plenty of charcoal both chunks and layers but only nails and misc iron in them. I am into a good bullet area right now not far from one of the many forts that surrounded Petersburg during the siege but bullets are about all I've found. Where there are bullets there are other relics.

 

[smokeythecat]

Phishfarmer, this pit was only 10" deep and about 3' across. Under a pile of rocks, and the charcoal here is not deep. Heck, I can make (and have made) a better one in my lawn getting rid of sticks. I have dug numerous of these, each only produces a few items. There were hundred of soldiers here, I've never figured it out unless someone dug the big ones out a long time ago which is possible.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats on the nice assortment of finds.

So Andres pencils work on button, huh... I learn something new every day.

Best of luck to you!

 

[smokeythecat]

Carolina Tom, I tried it the first time on buttons last night. They do very well. Our buttons are getting very fragile. BTW, the "fix" on the 4th button is going to work out fairly well. I have it stabilized now.