Newbie Needs Help....In search of the Civil War?

[kermit]

I live in south east Kentucky and have been coin hunting for over a year. The area I live in had very little civil war activity way back when. I have found two small battles that took place with in an hours drive from my house. I know I can't hunt the battle site it's self but the troops had to come from some place in order to get there to fight. Does anyone have any info/tips/links that will help me find the camps used by troops. I mean you can only walk or ride a horse pulling cannons and supplys for so many miles a day. Horses have to rest too. I'm new to Civil war relic hunting and need all the help I can get.


Thanks for any info

Kermit

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

try here for maps and info

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/ky.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps/

http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/bystate.htm#ky

 

[Gribnitz]

I know on a regular foot march, they would go about 12 miles a day ( I assume calvary would have gone a lot farther). You almost have to have some starting point to go from, an old map of the roads from the time period, a good mapping program you can overlay current and past maps, and THEN permission to detect and lots of time to look. I have been looking for almost a year for a skirmish site that I can't seem to pinpoint and I know the general area, but that is still hundreds of acres to try and find a single bullet to know I am getting close. You would think a skirmish site would be a lot easier than a camp to find, but it sure hasn't turned out that way.

One clue to look for is access to water. They would generally set up camp where they could water the horses and needed easy access for the horse to get down to the creek. If it's roughly 12 miles from a vague point you know they set off from (vague records usually say they marched from so and so town and camped), locate a creek with the OLD road map (which may or may not have changed in 140 years), you may have good spot to check out.

 

[civilman1]

Hey kermit,try going to "topogs" on a google.The first one that should pop up will be a link to some cool map's.Scroll down to "topographical engineer's--civil war maps"(after going to site map)They might have something to get you started at least.HH!!

 

[stoney56]

kermit, see if any of these help.
http://www.civilwararchive.com/unionky.htm

This one just click on the battle for more info.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/KYmap.htm

This just has a lot of sites to search including troop history be they Union or CSA and other info.
http://www.earthstation9.com/index.html?kentuck3.htm

At some point you might try this search engine as it does google, yahoo, jeeves, and others.
http://www.dogpile.com

 

[backbonz]

THE source for WBTS research.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_browse.html

you can thank me later...

 

[stoney56]

OK backbonz, it's later.

 

[kermit]

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the info.


Kermit