Army of the Potomac

[wilkere]

Last week I was able to visit a old stomping ground near Fredicksburg Va. since I was attending a Marine Corps conference up in Quantico. About ten years ago I was able to get a few three ringers and some lead slag in this tiny valley between two hillocks in the woods off of Interstate 95. I always wondered over the years if there was anything left as I did not do the area justice with my old Tesoro detector. Nowadays armed with a Minelab Excalibur I jumped into the woods from a newly laid parking lot and searched for the area I knew “they” were at from my hunt ten years prior.

I walked along the ridgeline of a meandering hilltop which may have been a footpath long ago, and stumbled upon some old hand formed bricks haphazardly strewn about under the leaves in places on a flat plateau. With mosquitoes buzzing and ticks crawling I did manage to find a very old piece of silver spoon and a flat button and old iron kettle pieces. But nothing definitive.

I was getting a bit tired as the Minelab is no lightweight and it was getting late in the afternoon so the woods were darking up a bit, so I decided to head back straight over some ridgelines and toward the sounds of traffic. I soon descended into a small valley and pondered that this may be the spot from before, so I slowed down and started to scan the center where in the past runoff from rains carved a small depression. It was nice to hear the detector sound off after a long silence and lead slag was soon in hand, then a foot away the first bullet sounded off.

I knew this was the spot, and started to work every inch slowly, as the time before I just ran thru and never had the opportunity to go back like I planned. As I flipped over the divot with my boot and saw the company badge lying in the dirt, I knew the relic hunting gods were treating me with a favor! The week before I lost a WW2 lapel pin I just purchased at a military show for 50 clams and I guess this was a payback from the Gods for being such a swell guy!

What I really need to I.D. are these pieces of some sort of tin. Some of the pieces have a copper threaded stud soldered onto the top. It was found within a few feet of the cap badge and some minne balls. Anyone have a clue on what was inside 147 years ago?

Semper Fi,
Bob
http://www.okinawarelics.com

[Montana Jim]

Interesting finds... the studded scrap is intruiquing. Maybe portions of a lamp or other such mundane contraption...

Nice company "B" identifier! I have a large "I" from my Indian Wars site...

Good luck with the ID

[civilman1]

The "B" is pretty sweet....Try and get some better pic's of the other piece,maybe indoor's,I'm sure it will get ID'd. Nice save's!!!!