Video from DIV, and the history behind the finds

In my DIV daily blogs, I told you about the experiences I had detecting in Virginia, and showed you some of the relics I recovered there.  In this blog post, I'd like to take a closer look at some of those finds, and put them in the perspective of their use and historical significance.  First, though, I'm happy to share with you the video I put together while on the trip.  I wanted my friends, family, and readers to share in the excitement of the finds as they were made.  I have both the bottle and plate reveals on camera, showing these rare items coming to light for the first time in 150 years.  I do hope you enjoy it.

On June 9th, 1863, some 20,000 soldiers converged near the town of Brandy Station, Virginia.  The ensuing battle was the largest cavalry engagement to ever take place in America.  The Union cavalry launched a surprise raid against the Confederate cavalry encampment of Gen. Jeb Stuart.  Although the attack failed to route the Confederates, and the outcome was not a significant victory for either side, the battle marked one important turning point in the war.  For the first time, the Federal cavalry held their own against the Confederates, who had previously dominated in terms of mounted combat.

The properties we searched included part of the Brandy Station battlefield.  In addition, the area was used as winter camps by both armies during the war.  During the winter of 1863-1864, the Spillman Farm (site of DIV XXI) was home to the 1st Division, United States Cavalry.  It was in the center of this camp that I recovered the sword belt buckle, worn by all enlisted cavalrymen.  It is simply amazing to know that I walked the very hill these men are standing on in the picture.  An enlarged section of the picture is also posted below, clearly showing the eagle sabre belt plates they wore, exactly like the one I recovered form the hillside.  Numerous other cavalry-related items were recovered by other detectorists at the hunt, including bit bosses, rosettes, curb chains, bits, several sabre belt plates and carbine sling buckles, sharps and colt pistol bullets, 1st division hat numbers, a Co. K 1st Division ID tag, and even a bugle found at the bottom of a dug out hut.  Below is a picture of Company K, 1st US Cavalry Division in that camp, not far from where my sabre belt plate was recovered.

The sword belt rig consisted of a leather belt with brass buckle, and a number of brass pieces for hanging the sword while standing and mounted.  CivilWarMall has an excellent image which clearly illustrates the metal parts of the sword belt rig.  Notice the large rivets and snap-swivel at the end of the hanging straps - these are the pieces of the sword belt rig found by Earl K. on the hillside near my Virginia buckle at DIV XIX, which he so graciously gave to me.

For a one-piece infantry belt, a small brass adjuster was attached to the opposite end of the belt from the buckle.  You can see how it was used, and how it was affixed to the belt, in this example from Gatling-Gun.com. I recovered an infantry belt adjuster at a Union campsite located on the Beauregard Farm (DIV XX), which is also shown in the image below.

I also wanted to post a picture of the Ordnance button I recovered at a Confederate camp site on the Beauregard farm, with a non-dug example from relicman.com for comparison.  The low-convex three-piece button was originally produced for a Union Ordnance Corp officer, responsible for the logistics of weapons development and procurement.  The design features a flaming bomb over two crossed cannons, both of which bear the letters "US".  This is a pre-war button was produced in the 1830's-40's, and a new design was used for Federal Ordnance Corp buttons in the 1850's-60's.  It was found in a camp which produced several other confederate buttons, including North Carolina seal buttons and at least one Confederate Artillery "block A" button.  The combination of the outdated style of the button as well as the location of the find makes it very likely that this button was re-purposed by the Confederacy for use by an artilleryman.

DIV Blog Day 7: Back to Saxapahaw!

I apologize for not adding the Day 7 blog yesterday, I was simply exhausted.  We hunted in the rain yesterday morning, and I didn't make any find of note except for one small brass buckle.  But the highlight of the day was when my digging buddy, carpool driver, and friend Josh came over with something to show me.  He held out a carbine sling buckle, plow bent but with both keepers, and asked if I knew what it was.  I sure did!  It's a carbine sling buckle, used on a wide leather belt to attach a cavalryman to his weapon so he could hold the reins.  Josh had found his first Civil War buckle!  They were used by both sides, but based on the construction, it appears that his was made by the Union.  I didn't get a picture of his buckle to show you, but below is a picture of a Union carbine sling buckle I found a while back right here in Saxapahaw.  It was both my first Civil War buckle and the first Civil War relic I had ever found.  Josh hadn't cleaned when I last saw him, so I don't know if it had any maker's mark.  My buckle from Saxapahaw is double stamped.  The first says "E. Gaylord Chicopee Mass.", the buckle maker.  The second stamp reads "T. J. Shepard", the US equipment inspector.  It's hard to get an idea of the size of this buckle from this picture, but it's quite large at about 3.25 x 2 inches.

We celebrated for a bit, and dug some more before the rains hit hard.  We went back for lunch and the relic show (with some AMAZING finds on display) under the HQ tent.  After lunch we were wet (with more rain coming), exhausted from a week of relic hunting, and happy with our respective buckles - so we decided to hit the road early, and come back to Saxapahaw a bit early.  That was nice, as I was starting to miss this little town.  It's good to be home.

DIV Day 6: Union Cavalry Buckle!!!

At the end of yesterday’s post, I commented that I was happy with lead but I really wanted to find some brass today.  Well, I accomplished that in a BIG way!  The day started off well with a few bullets, two grommets, and an eagle coat button.  I struggled to pull a few more bullets out of the big field where I found them yesterday, but then decided to move on to the large Union cavalry camp that I had heard about last night.  There were detectors everywhere, and a few pits open on the hillside.  With the amount of bullets being found in that camp, I knew there had to be a plate in there somewhere, so I headed up the hill and started swinging.

I wasn’t in the camp very long before I got a shallow bullet signal.  I dug down, but the target was still in the hole.  When I saw a line of green brass showing at about 6 inches I started to get excited.  Clearing away a bit more dirt revealed the loop on the side of a belt buckle, and I knew I was in business!

Pulling it out from the clay, I confirmed my suspicion when I saw the Federal eagle of a saber belt plate.  This type of buckle was used on a Union cavalryman’s sword belt.  Around the eagle, a silver laurel wreath would have been soldered on, but is missing on my particular buckle.

Once again I have to thank God for helping me to make such a historic discovery.  Also, I’d like to offer a huge thank you to John, Rose, and the entire DIV committee for their hard work which made this hunt possible.  I’m so excited to have found such an amazing piece of this nation’s history!!

DIV Blog Day 5: S'more lead

Today was the start of DIV XXI at a different property associated with the Battle of Brandy Station.  WOW, there were some amazing relics unearthed today!!  They included an ID badge, complete pistol, a sword hilt and pommel, buttons from Louisiana Mississippi Texas and many others, a South Carolina belt plate and many more amazing recoveries.  Unfortunately none of those mind-blowing finds were mine, but I'm still happy with the new lead I recovered.  I took far too long finding a "spot", and I really only got into a decent place thanks to fellow digger Vaughn (thanks!).

I was pleased to recover a total of 9 bullets, all of them different!  Several I have never found before, so this made for a successful day of detecting.  From left to right they are: 44 pistol round ball, 44 Colt pistol, 58 round ball, 54 Sharps variant (I think), my first 54 Sharps ringtail, my first 58 Gardner, Williams cleaner type 1, 58 caliber three ring Minie, and an unidentified high-velocity impact bullet.

I'm looking forward to getting out again tomorrow to hopefully add some brass to all this lead, and if I'm really lucky get into another pit to dig.  Wish me luck!

DIV Day 4: Detecting Fredericksburg, VA

Today was the "break" day between DIV XX and XXI, so Josh and I took a trip to nearby Fredericksburg.  We toured the battlefield museum, and saw the infamous stone wall at Sunken Rd.  We then met up with one of my friends from college, who graciously invited us to metal detect in her yard directly on the battlefield.  It was a great honor to search such important historical ground, even though it had been disturbed by housing construction in the past.  Unfortunately neither of us found any war relics.  The detecting wasn't totally fruitless, as I recovered this silver Hickok belt buckle.  It measures about 1 inch by 1.5 inches, and is stamped on the back as sterling, or 92.5%, silver.

Afterwards we headed over to the pre-hunt meeting for DIV XXI.  The excitement of detecting a brand new property was electric in the air.  Needless to say, I'm super excited for tomorrow, and I can't wait to see what we can find!!  Wish us luck!!

DIV Blog Day 3: My first Civil War bottle!!

Today we started out detecting a new area near the hunt HQ.  After a great many nails and farm iron, I happened to find a mule shoes, which I took as an omen of good luck.  I placed it in my bag, making sure it would stay "open side" up to hold in my luck.  The very next signal turned out to be an artillery shell fragment!  I'm not sure exactly what shell it's from, and there may not be enough remaining to know.

The following signal was a horseshoe, which I casually tossed into my bag.  The entire rest of the morning did not go as well as I had hoped, without a single period target.  After the hunt-sponsored BBQ, I returned to the field I detected on day two, but not before stopping off to unload some of the iron from my pack.  I quickly discovered my problem - the horseshoe was in my bag upside down.  I righted the horseshoe and started detecting, and before long I had a decent signal.

What I found in the hole was a deep 58 caliber three ring bullet, but something caught my eye.  Black material stood out on the surface of the white bullet, and the bottom of the hole showed a small amount of charcoal.  I thought I might be on to something, and began expanding out the hole to find more charcoal.  As I removed another shovel of dirt, I watched a second three ring bullet roll out.  At this point I was sure I was in a fire pit or hut site.

I called my buddy Josh who was detecting on the next hill over, and he came to help out.  We continued to expand the hole, following the black charcoal material to excavate the pit.  There wasn't much in it, but plenty for our first pit dig, including some broken glass and animal bone.  Josh ended up pulling out three more bullets, while I had five (all 58's).  Josh was taking his turn expanding the side with a hand digger when he said "Hey, if we find a bottle, you're digging it."  No sooner had he said it then he started to see glass emerge from the side of the hole.

I hopped in to the hole and carefully worked around to free the bottle from the clay and rocks which surrounded it.  Josh took video, but I'll have to post that later.  It turned out to be a complete medicine bottle with no breaks.  It is a completely surreal experience digging out that pit, and I hope to be able to do more in the future.  But now it's time to rest up, because while the bottle was an excellent ending to DIV XX, the next hunt (XXI) starts on Thursday for three more days of digging!

DIV Blog Day 2: more lead and brass

Today was Day 2 of DIV XX, held at Beauregard Farm in Culpeper, VA.  I had a good day yesterday, but wasn't able to find a "spot" where relics were concentrated (and shallow enough for a VLF detector) where I could slow down.  We parked at a different part of the farm today, and I simply turned on my detector and started walking.  My first find was another 69 caliber minie ball.  It always amazes me just how heavy these things are.  From there I searched the area a bit longer, and just when I was about to move on I found a round musket ball.  As it turns out, I had found my "spot", and spent the entire rest of the day working between two hills.

In addition to a dozen dropped bullets, I found a few other interesting relics, some of which were new for me.  The button was a thrill to find, and is actually my first Union eagle button.  The fields don't tend to treat buttons well here, so I'm very happy to have found this one intact.  As far as lead, I found a flattened out three ring minie ball, and the biggest piece of camp lead I've ever dug.  The highlight for today was digging a brass belt adjuster with a gorgeous green patina (shown at the top of the picture above).

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to the same place tomorrow, or if I'll look for a new spot.  But for now, I know I'm getting some much needed rest.  Thanks for reading!