DIV XXII Day 3

WOW, what a day!  I am beat!

DIV XXII at Beauregard Farm has finally wrapped up, and it was so much fun.  I started out the morning detecting the 69 field with Jim, as most people had gone on to other locations and there was plenty of space to detect.  We got into a patch of 69 caliber bullets and other relics, so we called up Dwight and Glenn and invited them to join us.  We all made some good finds in the area, especially Jim who had a great day overall.  Before lunch I had racked up nine more 69 caliber bullets and one small colt pistol bullet.  I just love finding those massive projectiles, and it's difficult to imagine the destruction that they could inflict.  I also got two eagle buttons, one with significant face damage, and the other in quite good shape.

Then it was off to the DIV sponsored lunch, where we ate BBQ and perused the impromptu museum of recently unearthed relics.  These included buckles, buttons, artillery projectiles, bottles, two ID tags, and more.  After lunch I went back to detecting with Jim, but the finds slowed down considerably.  I found a cool bayonet scabbard tip, but that was about it. 

I was exhausted, and dragging across the field when I got another signal on the side of a hill.  Digging down, I uncovered a piece of camp lead, and immediately recognized the black ash on the outside of the lead - I had found another hut site.  With only 40 minutes until the end of the hunt.  As another digger commented "Congratulations, and I'm sorry."

For the remainder of the 40 minutes, Jim and I dug like mad, trying to recover as much as possible from the rapidly expanding hole.  The ash layer just kept going and going, it seemed without end.  We weren't able to completely explore the hut, but we did as well as possible in the time allowed.  In the end, we didn't end up getting any stellar finds, but the experience was incredible.  It was Jim's first hut dig, and it was awesome getting to share that with him.  We did record the GPS location of the hut, should we ever get a chance to return.  What we did recover from the hut included fragments of broken glass, crockery, dinner plates, and lots and lots of oyster shells.  It's incredible to think that what we were recovering was the remains of a soldier's meal, and even part of the plate he was eating from.  Jim put it best when he said "This is the closest I have ever been to an individual Civil War soldier."

DIV started strong and ended with a bang.  I'm sad to have to go, but anxious to return to my home in Saxapahaw (and get some rest!).  As with the last DIV, I will make a recap post in the next few days highlighting some of the specific finds, with new pictures and information about their use.  Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!