What a Saturday I had. My buddy and I have been detecting this ghost town site since last fall. We have made some incredible finds but this is a first for me. I am really excited about the hat plate and button that I found. A hat plate is a rare find and from what I have read this plate may be a rare variety. It is not in the best of shape but I won't let it deter my excitement!!!!!!! I also found a war of 1812 Artillery first regiment button. Which is another first for me.
The site we are detecting consists of pasture and crop land. This summer we have had to stick to the pasture area so the crops would not be disturbed. It has been a challenge to stay clear of the bulls let loose to graze in the pasture. There are horses in the pasture along with the cattle that would love to push you over with a nudge when your back is turned which was an added challenge.
We have found military buttons in the past here and there but never any concentration of them. Last week end my buddy wandered in the wooded part of the pasture. He found a small area about four foot square where he dug five pewter eagle coat buttons and one cuff button. We believe a coat must have dropped there close to 200 years ago. He called me over and we detected the area for the next few hours. Close to 100 dropped and fired musket balls about fifteen yards away were dug. This must have been a military camp at one time. Where the buttons were the ground was loaded with iron which made it a challenge. It was getting late and we were tired so we decided head home and go back the following week end.
Yesterday the forecast was for a 30 percent chance of rain and cooler temperatures. Perfect we thought but when we arrived it was raining hard with thunder and lightning so we went to a nearby town to have breakfast to wait out the weather. The rain eventually let up and the lightning was gone so we drove back to our detecting spot. The sun was peeking out of the clouds. There was a rainbow that appeared to end right at the spot where we believe the military camp once stood so we headed out to our spot in the woods. I began detecting an iron infested area about fifteen feet where the pewter eagle buttons were found the week before. To get at the good targets sometimes you have to get the chunks of iron out of the way. After digging several pieces of iron out pops this oval shaped item. It was caked with dirt so I could not see any detail. I headed over to my friend as I knew this could be something really good. We rinsed it with water and the eagle appeared then we could see four sets of holes and we knew we had a hat plate. After several high fives and a chicken dance that would make a chicken blush I headed back to my vehicle with the plate. It is a fragile piece. I did not want to do any damage to it. When I got back I watched my buddy dig two U. S. great coat buttons. He also found an artillery corps button with the eagle and the cannon imprinted on and a couple of buttons we could not identify. Close the end of the day while working my way back to my vehicle I find a first regiment artillery button. I was stunned at this point. A few minutes later my buddy yells to me to come over by him. He found a beautiful arrow head on the bottom of a dried up creek bed. What an incredible Saturday that I will never forget!!!!!!!!
This is what I have found out about this hat plate so far. This pattern was used for the enlisted infantry during the years of 1814 and 1815. The plates were made in Baltimore in the winter of 1814 and 1815. They were applied to leather infantry caps or what is called a tombstone cap. Because these plates were made of pewter they did not polish up well so they were discontinued in January of 1815.
I got the following from a military relic book which has a photograph of this plate. "This oval form of the 1814 Infantry cap plate is one of the least known regulation patterns hailing from the war of 1812. We do not know how many of these pewter plates were produced or which units received them. This is the only known example, found at Sackets Harbor, New york, a hotbed of military activity. The more common rectangular brass versions followed a January 1815 decision to stop using white metal. At that time Commissary General Irvine complained: "The difficulty of procuring white cap plates....that will bear a polish, had induced me to propose that Brass plates...shall be substituted for white."
Thank you for your comments and for reading my post.
The site we are detecting consists of pasture and crop land. This summer we have had to stick to the pasture area so the crops would not be disturbed. It has been a challenge to stay clear of the bulls let loose to graze in the pasture. There are horses in the pasture along with the cattle that would love to push you over with a nudge when your back is turned which was an added challenge.
We have found military buttons in the past here and there but never any concentration of them. Last week end my buddy wandered in the wooded part of the pasture. He found a small area about four foot square where he dug five pewter eagle coat buttons and one cuff button. We believe a coat must have dropped there close to 200 years ago. He called me over and we detected the area for the next few hours. Close to 100 dropped and fired musket balls about fifteen yards away were dug. This must have been a military camp at one time. Where the buttons were the ground was loaded with iron which made it a challenge. It was getting late and we were tired so we decided head home and go back the following week end.
Yesterday the forecast was for a 30 percent chance of rain and cooler temperatures. Perfect we thought but when we arrived it was raining hard with thunder and lightning so we went to a nearby town to have breakfast to wait out the weather. The rain eventually let up and the lightning was gone so we drove back to our detecting spot. The sun was peeking out of the clouds. There was a rainbow that appeared to end right at the spot where we believe the military camp once stood so we headed out to our spot in the woods. I began detecting an iron infested area about fifteen feet where the pewter eagle buttons were found the week before. To get at the good targets sometimes you have to get the chunks of iron out of the way. After digging several pieces of iron out pops this oval shaped item. It was caked with dirt so I could not see any detail. I headed over to my friend as I knew this could be something really good. We rinsed it with water and the eagle appeared then we could see four sets of holes and we knew we had a hat plate. After several high fives and a chicken dance that would make a chicken blush I headed back to my vehicle with the plate. It is a fragile piece. I did not want to do any damage to it. When I got back I watched my buddy dig two U. S. great coat buttons. He also found an artillery corps button with the eagle and the cannon imprinted on and a couple of buttons we could not identify. Close the end of the day while working my way back to my vehicle I find a first regiment artillery button. I was stunned at this point. A few minutes later my buddy yells to me to come over by him. He found a beautiful arrow head on the bottom of a dried up creek bed. What an incredible Saturday that I will never forget!!!!!!!!
This is what I have found out about this hat plate so far. This pattern was used for the enlisted infantry during the years of 1814 and 1815. The plates were made in Baltimore in the winter of 1814 and 1815. They were applied to leather infantry caps or what is called a tombstone cap. Because these plates were made of pewter they did not polish up well so they were discontinued in January of 1815.
I got the following from a military relic book which has a photograph of this plate. "This oval form of the 1814 Infantry cap plate is one of the least known regulation patterns hailing from the war of 1812. We do not know how many of these pewter plates were produced or which units received them. This is the only known example, found at Sackets Harbor, New york, a hotbed of military activity. The more common rectangular brass versions followed a January 1815 decision to stop using white metal. At that time Commissary General Irvine complained: "The difficulty of procuring white cap plates....that will bear a polish, had induced me to propose that Brass plates...shall be substituted for white."
Thank you for your comments and for reading my post.
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Magnificent eagle design on the hat plate , not sure what the tombstone hat looked like 
Amazing 
