garren
Hero Member
This is the iron and other items I kept from my CW battlefield hunt a few days ago that produced the James shell. I was hunting with my friend who is a veteran relic hunter. His advice was to keep every single piece of iron until it can be ruled out or IDed as CW. Some of these items I have a guess about but would like further verification. Some items I'm clueless.
The site is hay fields and cow pastures. Its in the heart of a battle that was mostly artillery. The farms are sparse and the farm related items I dug from the fields were pretty obvious.
The items on the paper I think are a confederate artillery hammer head, grape or canister shot and shell fragments...your thoughts?
The axes fit the online description and pictures of Union felling axes. The one with the lip was 16" deep. The basic wedge was a few steps away but only 1" down. I figured it had been dug by other hunters and left.
I have no clue about the items I'm holding.
The misc iron I know is ambiguous with farm items but would like your input.
Is there any way to distinguish CW era horseshoes from later farm related ones?
If the location of items in proximity to each other helps... The horseshoes, axes, hammer, items in my hand and misc iron all came from a small area in a wooded creek bordering the fields. The canister shot and fragments were from different locations, in a line, from the creek to the field where I dug the James. The distance between the James and the majority of iron was approx. 1600 yards.
The 5 sharps bullets I dug (not pictured) were about mid point between that distance.
Any thoughts or input on this stuff to help confirm or rule it out as CW would be greatly appreciated.
The site is hay fields and cow pastures. Its in the heart of a battle that was mostly artillery. The farms are sparse and the farm related items I dug from the fields were pretty obvious.
The items on the paper I think are a confederate artillery hammer head, grape or canister shot and shell fragments...your thoughts?
The axes fit the online description and pictures of Union felling axes. The one with the lip was 16" deep. The basic wedge was a few steps away but only 1" down. I figured it had been dug by other hunters and left.
I have no clue about the items I'm holding.
The misc iron I know is ambiguous with farm items but would like your input.
Is there any way to distinguish CW era horseshoes from later farm related ones?
If the location of items in proximity to each other helps... The horseshoes, axes, hammer, items in my hand and misc iron all came from a small area in a wooded creek bordering the fields. The canister shot and fragments were from different locations, in a line, from the creek to the field where I dug the James. The distance between the James and the majority of iron was approx. 1600 yards.
The 5 sharps bullets I dug (not pictured) were about mid point between that distance.
Any thoughts or input on this stuff to help confirm or rule it out as CW would be greatly appreciated.
