American Civil War 1861-1865
Civil War Relic Hunt #1
On November 9-11, 2012 I went on my first Civil War Relics Hunt in Virginia. A fellow Colchester England club member, LouisanaSal, invited me on a 3 day hunt along with 9 other hunters to search the fields of Virginia along the path of Robert E. Lees's final retreat. I was very excited to get the opportunity and my excitement was elevated when I recovered a Confederate Belt Buckle on my very second day. I went on to find a few other relics that you may view below. I plan on making Civil War relic hunting a part of my future treasure hunting plans.
From Left to right: North Carolina Quinn and Tim (father and son), Ohio Jerry and Tom (father and son), Washington Dave, Atlanta Mike, Florida Chuck, Florida Rob and Washington Tom. The shadow is Louisana Sal taking the picture.
Below is a summary of my first hunt as written by Washington Tom and posted on our Colchester Club private forum. Tom found a 1796 Large Cent that was voted the Best Find" of the hunt.
Sal's Virginia History Hunt
Hi Everyone,
Sal’s hunt was the best. Everything was planned out and ready for our arrival. I’d hunted before with Jerry and Rob, so it was good to see both again. All but two in the group had been to England to hunt. Dave with me, Tom (Jerry’s son) with his dad and Rob, Chuck and Mike on various hunts with barn leaders. Tim and Quinn (father and son team) had to listen to many stories about England and of course, Chris’ eccentrics. We had many laughs at Chris’ expense, all in good humor. Sal had put together a great bunch of people for the hunt and one could not be thin skinned and survive.
The first night’s dinner was homemade chilly, nice and spicy the way I like it. After settling in Sal gave us a short history lesson about the areas we would be hunting. Farmland right along the route taken by General Robert E. Lee’s army as they retreated from Petersburg with the Union army on their heels. The fields for us to hunt were literally right next to the roads the soldiers walked. There were many skirmishes along this route as well as major battles. After Sal’s history lesson, and show and tell on some of his finds, we were ready for three days of hunting.The fields Sal had procured for us to hunt were for the most part in great shape. Only one had the grass a little tall. From this field we dug some of our best finds to include many, many bullets (dropped for the most part) and Rob’s Confederate frame buckle (a beauty). It was on this field that Tom and Jerry found the bullet hoard just before lunch. After lunch we all hit the hoard area hard and pulled bullet after bullet out of the ground. Tom and Jerry were both swinging MXT’s, which unfortunately made it so they couldn’t hunt too close together. Sal and my CTX3030 worked close to Tom without any problems, so with Tom’s permission we circled him as he pulled like 100,000 bullets (LOL) out of the ground from a 4 x 4 hole he’d dug. It was nice of Tom and Jerry to share the area with everyone. Needless to say, we had a bunch of laughs during this process.
While the guys were hunting the hot field above it was decided as a group that Sal and I would go hot spot a new field. It was while walking through one of these huge fields that I banged my 1796 large cent. We had a silly pot each morning and afternoon, cost a buck to get in, and it changed regular as to what would win. Sal had won the day before with the oldest coin, which was like a 1950’s penny (yes, he took our money). We once again had the oldest coin for this morning hunt, setting a rule that to win you had to find a coin prior to World War II (no cheap wins for Sal this time). Immediately Sal banged a 1920’s penny, which he was pretty self-satisfied about with the new rule we’d put in place. This had him in the lead until I dug the large cent. I ended up winning the morning pot with the 1796 coin, it was nice to get my buck back from Sal, LOL. We left the area where I’d found the coin, never checking the spot further until we returned as a group later. From this area Tom got his Spanish Real ½ coin (a beauty) and Chuck dug a 1800’s nickel (another beauty). We dug several bullets and a couple of Eagle buttons as well. It turned out to be a great area and we only had time to touch a small portion of it.
The last hunt day most had to leave in the morning. Chuck, Rob, Dave, Sal and I headed for an area that had produced the prior year. We (mainly Sal) started banging Confederate bullets right away. Sal was up like three to one on this day. We’d kicked his butt on Union bullets the prior days, but these Confederate bullets seemed to like this Southern boy. At one point he hit a good target, which he had me check. Yes, it screamed like a bullet as he’d called it. He then offered it up for me to dig and have. Right, like I’d live that down. I explained that I’d rather have a sister in a “certain place” (as the saying goes) than to have him find, and then give to me, a bullet. We both got a chuckle out of this. Sal then dug the target and it turned out to be a dandy fired Confederate bullet. He later found another bullet target, or so we thought, which he offered up to Dave. Dave, having no pride, LOL, accepted the target. It ended up not being a bullet and of course I have not let him forget that he’d stooped to such a low, LOL.
The hunt was a blast with a ton of laughs and great finds. We worked together as a team, everyone happy to see the other have a great find. I’ve attached a few photos for your viewing pleasure. The one shows Sal on the ground with Dave standing over him. Having to carry Dave on this last day was more than the poor man could stand, LOL.
Thanks for a great hunt Sal. I’m hooked and would love to join you on the next one.
PS: Jerry, thanks
again for the jam… It’s the best!
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Confederate Belt Buckle (Frame Buckle). This buckle was standard issue for the Confederate Infantry.
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This buckle is made of cast brass.
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Confederate Belt Buckle.......my story
Most everyone was hunting out in the field and I was hunting along the roadside. This was a side road off the main path of Robert E. Lees's final retreat. I was actually swinging under the barb wire fence that ran along the roadside when I got a major hit. I started digging at an angle as I could not get to the backside of the target because of the fence. After digging about 10" deep I had still not reached the target. I thought to myself,
am I reading the fence as a target? I ran my coil under the fence a couple feet away and just a null so no, there was still something down there. At that point I thought it was probably a can. I dug just a little more and out pops this buckle. I was on both knees and began cleaning it up with just my gloves. Quite honestly I did not know it was a confederate buckle at that point as I am just learning about CW artifacts but knew it was an older buckle. I must have been on my knees for quite awhile as North Carolina Tim (a long time relic hunter) called over to me, " Whata ya got? I stood up and yelled "a buckle, but not confederate". I walked over to him and his eyes buldged and he got very excited. He said "Man that is confederate and quite rare". He yells over to his son Quinn who came running. Both of them were more excited than I was at the time but it didn't take me very long for my excitement to elevate. I had only seen confederate buckles with the CS on them. They educated me about this particular buckle and later that night I viewed a book of CW artifacts that included this buckle and many more buckles. I've ordered a Civil War artifacts book that has many illustrations as I am thirsty to learn more about them. It's amazing to think some confederate soldier discarded or lost this buckle and it's been buried for over 150 years until I recovered it.
am I reading the fence as a target? I ran my coil under the fence a couple feet away and just a null so no, there was still something down there. At that point I thought it was probably a can. I dug just a little more and out pops this buckle. I was on both knees and began cleaning it up with just my gloves. Quite honestly I did not know it was a confederate buckle at that point as I am just learning about CW artifacts but knew it was an older buckle. I must have been on my knees for quite awhile as North Carolina Tim (a long time relic hunter) called over to me, " Whata ya got? I stood up and yelled "a buckle, but not confederate". I walked over to him and his eyes buldged and he got very excited. He said "Man that is confederate and quite rare". He yells over to his son Quinn who came running. Both of them were more excited than I was at the time but it didn't take me very long for my excitement to elevate. I had only seen confederate buckles with the CS on them. They educated me about this particular buckle and later that night I viewed a book of CW artifacts that included this buckle and many more buckles. I've ordered a Civil War artifacts book that has many illustrations as I am thirsty to learn more about them. It's amazing to think some confederate soldier discarded or lost this buckle and it's been buried for over 150 years until I recovered it.
My other finds.............
3-Ringers (also known as Minie Balls). Claude-Etienne Minie invented the Minie Rifle and helped develope the three ringer bullet thus the name Minie Ball. The one on top is my first ever and just an hour later I dug ther other. I was happy to get the monkey off my back as almost everyone else in our group had recovered one before I did.
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Richmond Labs Bullet. We discovered an undocumented area where there must have been a skirmish as we recovered about 6 of these fired bullets.
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Pistol bullet.
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Knapsack Triangle. These hooks were used on Civil War knapsacks.
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Virginia History Hunt.
November 9-11. 2012 Treasure hunting along the path that Robert E. Lee took on his final retreat to Appomattox. |
Small Musket Balls.
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Really neat old broach with a lot of detail about the size of a U.S. quarter. Pin back is gone.
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This shell casing identified by LouisianaSal (Forum name Slim on his Virginia History Hunt website) ) is a Spencer Carbine Rifle Casing - that is the gun that changed the war - Union soldiers using it in 1865 could fire 6 shots in the time it took the Confederate with a traditional musket to fire one!
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Maybe clock parts?
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Half of an old fertilizer tag.
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Silver plated spoon.
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