DIV XXXIII - Day three - Here, there, and everywhere

On day three, our small group of detectorists seemed to be just about everywhere.  We started out the day towards the North end of the property, where I found my best recoveries for the day, a small patch of Confederate bullets.

The four bullets on the left are a variety for the Sharps carbine known as a ringtail or tie-base Sharps.  The gunpowder-filled paper cartridge was cemented and tied to the final protruding ring on the bullet, in contrast to the later period paper Sharps like those I recovered at Cole's Hill last year which were glued around the body of the bullet.  These ringtail Sharps came from a known area of Confederate activity, along with other southern bullets.  But it should be noted that the ringtail Sharps was also used by the Federal cavalry early in the war.

Above is an illustration comparing these tie base Sharps cartridges with the later War traditional Sharps cartridge.  I have also included an example below of a non-dug tie base Sharps from The Horse Soldier, where the string can be clearly seen.

The bullet on the right is a Gardner, produced exclusively by the confederacy.  Gardner's can be easily identified by the unique ring around the base of the bullet, which actually crimped the paper cartridge at the base and held it in place. A non-dug Gardner cartridge from The Horse Soldier is also shown below for comparison.

From here, we traveled out into the adjoining fields, part of the actual Battle of Brandy Station.  Our primary targets recovered were lead, both fired and dropped bullets.  My friend Jimmy recovered a very rare 69 caliber Sea Service bullet, dropped by a Louisiana soldier on the battlefield, surrounded by fired Union rounds.  We covered a lot of ground before lunch.  Below are my fired bullets from this portion of the day, projectiles shot with the intent to kill.

After the world famous DIV barbeque, we explored yet another new area, although we never could settle in on a concentration of relics.  So I finished up the hunt at Beauregard back where I began - in my favorite 69 field.  My recoveries for all of day three are shown below.

But there was to be no rest for some of us weary searchers - DIV XXXIV at Brandy Rock Farm started the very next day!  Stay tuned for part four!