stacked rock wall help

[DixieDirtDigger]

I have found a rock wall just outside of town in the middle of the woods,no signs of houses etc anywhere around.The wall is 6 to 8 foot tall and is close to 1/4 mile in a straight line,it is situated at the foot of a steep hill,within a 1/2 mile is another strange thing,its a large hole in the ground that has walk in access from one side kinda like a natural horse pen.There is a water source nearby but I dont think it would supply much water but I could be wrong.Does anyone with any civil war knowledge or knowledge of rock walls have any idea what this wall could have been used for.It appears to be a barrier maybe to protect the hill top.To my knowledge there wasnt any heavy fighting in this area of Huntsville Alabama,its probably 10 miles from the center of town,it is known that the north did occupy Huntsville Durring the war and there are several look out points around town where they watched the norths movements, but this one is too far away to see downtown.There doesnt appear to be an area where the rocks came from unless they were taken from the large hole in the ground,but it would take some time to build the wall.Any Ideas would be helpful.

 

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[DixieDirtDigger]

Ill try to get back out there soon and take some pictures, if this weather would break a bit I intend on taking my detector out there also.

 

[fossis]

Hey dixiedirtdigger, don't know about the wall, but my Great-Great-Grandfather died near Huntsville during the CW, he died in a army hospital of illness.

He was with (Kentucky volunteers), his name was James Anderson Stinson, may be buried in the area............fossis

 

[DixieDirtDigger]

Fossis, There was a "Camp Monte Sano" here which was a hospital to my understanding durring the Civil War, It is located on top of Monte Sano mtn and at the present time is covered with houses, The markers are still in place giving the size of the camp etc.I do have a mental picture of sick and injured soldiers tossing there stuff off of the nearby bluffs,might be time to break out the GPS and go looking on the mtn side.

 

[silverswede]

I spent some time in Tennessee years ago and was facinated by the stacked stone walls back in the woods there. I quizzed an Old Timer in the area and he said they dated back over 150 years and were locally called Slave fences. The flat rock was cleaned from the land for fields by slaves and carried to the boundries and stacked making effective fences. Don't know if that could have been the case in your area, DDD but take a look at it with this in mind.

 

[fossis]

Thanks very much on the info about the cw hospital site, maybe I can visit some day.
Also in my area of western AR & Eastern OK there are many stone walls, usually from clearing fields for plowing, I heard a story of a man I remember , being asked by a stranger where a certain rock wall was located, the next day the farmer found a freshly dug hole...............HH, Fossis.