Civil War dropped and fired Munitions/Projectiles

[Ithaca Gunner]

I like the chase, finding the places to explore as much as finding artifacts. Some times it word of mouth and a finger pointing in a rough direction, sometimes it's stumbling on foundations, an almost intact structure, or even an old car deep in the woods wondering how it got there. I've found and explored the remains old mills, barns, some houses, a few factories, a flattened black smith shop, and a charcoal furnace. I think one of my favorites though are old dumps, you never know what you'll find in a dump, and the older, the better.

Some places can be mysteries taking years to find the truth of what they were, the charcoal furnace mentioned above, I was told it was a foundry that made canon balls for the War of 1812, a distillery, and a pottery furnace by various old folk in the area. Another was a large cut stone set in the ground on the ''Wheat Field'' on the Gettysburg Battlefield. Questions about it only led to speculation, ''Must be where an old monument was...'' was the common answer. I found what it was in a book about the monuments, but it had nothing to do with any monument. Seems in the early days of the park, they had a trolley system for tourists and several points of ''refreshment'' which included such attractions as dancing, gambling, prostitution, beer and whiskey. Imagine the problems this created! (apparently they served sandwiches, lemonade, and coffee during the day, but after sunset the menu changed) This led to the creation of the first park police which had small stations throughout the park to keep an eye on things. The stone was part of the foundation of one of those little stations for the early park police. Another was on Little Round Top, close to the most illicit of the ''refreshment'' areas. The trolley and refreshment areas were done by 1916 and the little park police buildings torn down also shortly after leaving only a few foundation stones to mark where they were.

I've found the best part of this exploration hobby to be the human interest stories that accompany the events. Personal tales of those who were there from the commanding generals to civilian children who witnessed the unfoldings of those events. The best authors will salt their books with these tales within the pages of history like, Bruce Catton, Shelby Foote, Stephan Sears, John Priest, and Harry Pfanz. The best though comes from the pages compiled and written by, Greg Coco, he's compiled several books on just human interest stories from Gettysburg.

[WinchesterM1]

My Aunt owns the actual “camp ground” the confederates were camping in during the battle of MiddleCreek she refused to let the park services take her property so the actual park is about 1/4 mile away and when she plowed her field she has hit sabers and muskets and all sorts of stuff

[Digger]

Love the fascinating stories here gentlemen ...
Have hit my soft spot here with this hobby as I have been doing it off and on since being a teenager .
Apologize as I digress from the civil war area of discussion but the history is so intriguing , please keep them coming .

I live in the N Nevada area so the history here has great tales also , Carson city, Virginia City , etc..
Years back I influenced a friend into detecting and we had great fun thru time in this area.
One time we were on a spot within the Carson City area and I was coming up with the usual pull tabs, trash .
My friend ,Ron called me over to look at what he found , as he was dusting it off it appeared to be a small dime .
As we looked closer, it was a 1874 CC seated liberty dime .. Nice !
Later , looking closer thru references we found that it was a very low mintage Carson City mint dime worth quite an amount.
Shorten the story .. he was offered 20,000 dollars a year later when word got out among collectors .

One of a few stories I have , love the history here on this side of Lake Tahoe .. the loggers and the miners covered these mountains all over.
Please keep the stories coming, thank you

[Winger Ed.]

When I was a kid the class trip went to Gettysburg. They had buckets of recovered boolits for sale as souvenirs for almost nothing. I bought one (about the cheapest thing there).

That reminds me of a buddy in Jr. High School. He'd gotten ahold of a Civil War era musket ball somewhere.
The look of it made him curious about how it had come to be like that.
Then a light went on in his head.

His Dad was a reenactor, a big time BP shooter, and cast his own musket balls.
The kid asked our Science teacher and did some research at the library about how and why the Lead ball had turned gray.

After his research:
He cast up a bunch of Lead balls, dug a hole in the back yard, and buried his bag full of musket balls.
He added whatever he needed to change the PH of the dirt to make them Oxidize the fastest, and kept the spot well watered.

A year or so later--
He's selling his own 'battle field recovered' musket balls.
They didn't look exactly like the real ones, but they were pretty close.

[gc45]

In my display case of cool items are 8 mini balls and several 36 caliber pistol balls found from the battles around Winchester Virginia.

[lightman]

I like the chase, finding the places to explore as much as finding artifacts.

I was this way when I hunted Indian Artifacts. Learning how to look for place, identifying a place and getting permission to hunt it was very gratifying.

I never got into detecting but I have found a couple of Cicil War bullets.

A funny story: I was hunting one of my regular fields with a buddy and I started finding what looked like mushroomed 22 bullets, but they didn't look quite right. I got home and started doing some research and my buddy called. He says he found out what we were finding. I told him that I did too. They were the lead from lead headed nails after the steel part of the nail had rusted away. There was an old house place on this particular field.

[Winger Ed.]

Cool.
Lead headed nails are still used for certain kinds of roofing applications.

[country gent]

As kids we would walk the dead furrow behind the plow picking out rocks but it was good for a couple arrow heads spear heads and skinning stones. Things that wouldnt be found with a metal detector. In one field there was an area that was full of tin cans and bottles. Walking behind the old mow board plows gave us a lot of "treasurers".

Banks of rivers and streams are another good hunting spot

[Winger Ed.]

In one field there was an area that was full of tin cans and bottles.

I always poke around in those.
It's the trash dump for country folks before there was any form of garbage collection outside the city.
Whatever wouldn't burn, or could be re-used went on the trash pile.
I've found lots of small, antique bottles in them.

[Digger]

Another here ...
When my friend and I were out one day in an area known for gold, I had just picked up a new detector and we stopped at a spot on top of a hill .
I put it together and was just started using it with his coaching and while he was showing me with his ...
He got a signal , a very short beep of a signal and he dug down a little bit with some more waving the machine and came up with a small gold nugget !
In all the times we were together , Ron was the one that would come up with the nice ones and I would find the usual tabs and occasional coin of recent ..
After a while it occurred to me maybe I was his good luck charm .. HA !
Really enjoyed those years , his goal was to find a twenty dollar gold coin but I kept telling him "big deal !" , your dime is worth a heck of a lot more !

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I came across the location of a trading post in an old newspaper article. Was said to be on the bank of a river were a creek joined it. Looked on the USGS map and only one side was level enough for that activity. Luckily it is undeveloped so I may find some neat stuff there. Have to get a detector first.

[Jniedbalski]

I live in cape county. Probably close to you. Most old church sites you can go but have been hunted to death. Pilot knob is close that you can go . Not the park but the 2000 acre plus’s right across the street . It’s all forest company owned and went there many times 25 years ago. You can find buttons a lot of cannon ball fragments and a few shot or dropped bullets. It’s a huge site. Along the Mississippi River or any high spot along the river is good. If you want info text me.

[Digger]

Great stories here ...
A few years later after my friend Ron passed away .., while out on on of the streets in Carson City with my crew as we were installing gas lines I had a moment occur.
At that time were on a dirt street that also happened to be the original Rail road bed/right of way for the V&T railroad coming into Carson way back in the days gone by.
Getting started first thing in the morning having a quick conference with my guys standing around listening to me , I glanced down at my feet and spotted a coin .
As I always pick up coins anywhere I come across no matter what they are ..
Picked up this one , quickly felt a bit bigger than a quarter , heavier .. my guys are watching as I wipe the dirt off an 1881 ten dollar Eagle liberty gold coin .
You should have seen the looks on their faces .." I saw that and ignored it !" .." S##@t !" one of them said as he was shaking his head .
I could not believe it for a bit but later on I attributed the coin in it's location to the old rail road that went thru the area .
After a while at home contemplating things ..I spoke to my self saying " Ron , I found your gold coin for you , it was not a gold double eagle but it will do."
Of all the years out detecting finding old coins here and there , a very small gold nugget now and then .
Simply standing there , with no detector , I pick up a gold coin.
When ever I look at it , I always think of my old friend Ron.

[jaysouth]

I lived in the Eastern part of Arlington, VA for 20 years. In my garden and flower beds I would find minnie balls left over from several battles to take/retake signal hill, about 1/2 mile from my house. It may have changed hands 9 times during the course of the civil war.

[Wayne Smith]

Fairfax Station, VA. As a teenager the kids from Church would play football on the elementary school field. Yes, this was in the 60's. I was tackled and, literally under my nose, was a mini ball from the War.

[abunaitoo]

A while ago I picked up a metal detector.
Heard all kinds of stories of people finding all kinds of stuff at the beach.
Tried it for a few months.
Found lots of rubbish, some coins, but that's it.
At least I cleaned up the rubbish a little.
Found out lots of people are doing it, and like how people are these days, they think they own a spot.
Don't like others taking things from their area.
I started carrying a bat with me.
It just got to be a hassle carrying all that stuff, and finding nothing.
Haven't done it for a while now.
Was good exercise.

[Brokenbear]

keep it up folks ..the knowledge and stories are encouraging

Bear

[contender1]

abunaitoo,, it's sad to hear you had such "bad" people affecting your leisure time. I'd guess that being on the island,, and knowing the limitations of space,, I can understand how it can be that way.

Absolutely,, in metal detecting,, you WILL find trash,, & lots of it. I always say; "If you aren't digging trash,, you aren't digging treasure." Lots of trash,, and it will be the bane of many to the point of discouragement.

Yes,, it's good exercise, and the good finds make the icing on the cake.

But there is also the true possibility of finding some very valuable stuff. A LOT depends upon the location & what may be lost. CIvil war relics can be "common" or rare. One such rare find,, almost exclusively in the Charleston SC area,, is a "slave tag." Yet,, I know one gentleman who has found almost a dozen of them. Common ones,, can bring several hundred dollars,, while rarer ones,, thousands. But it takes dedication, research, and hard work in finding the right places to hunt. (PS; beware of fakes!)