Civil War Soldier's ID Tag in the Old Dominion today!

DocBeav

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Man, I'm still in a bit of a shock with what I found today! Unbelievable!

(update, had to add 2 better pictures in sunlight brings out more detail and you can still see some of the gold gilding on the shield. Still on cloud 9!)
Obverse ID Tag.jpg Reverse ID Tag.jpg


Gigmaster (Steve) and I went out on the river today to check some of his past hot spots and look for a few new ones. (Make sure to check out his video on youtube:

We were pretty much getting skunked at sever of the places we went to. Too much silt and drift wood in some spots and TONS of aluminum and trash in others. It wasn't looking to promising and neither of us had found much of anything, not even a minnie ball or other bullet until....lol

I hit a nice 1899 Indian Head Penny which was nice, things were looking up!

20170615_224240.jpg

We also saw several bald eagles today:
20170615_155056.jpg 20170615_155113.jpg

A little further down the riverbank I got a nice signal (I was using the CTX) that showed a 12.39 and I thought I might be on another penny. After a few scoops the signal improved to 12.43 then a 12.46! Awesome! I was hoping for silver at this point and when I had it out of the hole and dumped the scoop on the edge of the water I saw what I was SURE was a large cent. I called Steve over as I checked it out to see what he thought and to get his camera. I started to make out the lettering on it and could clearly see 5th Reg and we both knew it was WAY better than a large cent, It was a MAJOR bucket list find! An AWESOME Union Soldier's ID Tag!

20170615_162920.jpg 20170615_162940.jpg 20170615_162945.jpg 20170615_163137.jpg

My celebration was a bit toned down as I realized that this is the second time now in as many weeks (look at Steve's videos and you'll see) that he has taken someone with him (though not to the same location) that went and found one of these! Steve, I'm sorry man BUT you did make up some ground with that sweet silver 1830 Capped Bust dime! One VERY nice coin despite being "holed".

Once I was home all I did to it was take some damp q-tips and roll them across it to get some of the caked on dirt and debris off of it and left it at that for now. I put it in a coin slab just to protect it. Dan, through Steve, suggested using a small amt of museum wax and just rub it on which I will do once I find some.

Civil War ID Tag Front.jpg Civil War ID Tag Back.jpg

After I was able to read it better I was able to find the name and the information on the soldier: "Moe" made it through his first enlistment, reenlisted, was promoted to corporal and finished out the war. 1861-1865. And we thought we had it rough with 6 month to one year deployments when I was active duty!

Emery "Moe" T. Guptil
Waterbury VT

MILITARY SERVICE

Age: 18, credited to Stowe, VT
Unit(s): 5th VT INF
Service: enlisted: 8/10/61
mustered in: 9/16/61, Pvt, Co. D, 5th VT INF
reenlisted:12/15/63
promoted: CORP 3/28/64
mustered out: 7/10/65

VITALS
Birth: abt 1843, Waterbury, VT
Death: 1932


The 5th Regiment, Vermont Volunteer Infantry (or 5th VVI) was a three years' infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It served in the Eastern Theater, predominantly in the VI Corps, Army of the Potomac, from September 1861 to June 1865. It was a member of the Vermont Brigade.

The regiment was mustered into Federal service on September 16, 1861, at St. Albans, Vermont. It was engaged in, or present at, Lee's Mill, Williamsburg, Golding's Farm, Savage's Station and White Oak Swamp during the Peninsula campaign; Crampton's Gap and Antietam during the 1862 Maryland campaign; Fredericksburg, Marye's Heights, and Salem Church; Gettysburg and Funkstown during the Gettysburg campaign; Rappahannock Station; the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor during the Overland Campaign; Charlestown, Opequon, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek during the Shenandoah Valley campaign and in the siege of Petersburg.

The regiment lost during service: 201 men killed and mortally wounded, 4 died from accident, 1 executed, 21 died in Confederate prisons and 112 died from disease; total loss: 339.

The regiment mustered out of service on June 29, 1865.

Thanks all for looking, I had a few other posts I needed to get done as well from a couple of PA farm hunts and another river hunt with Gigmaster but I had to get THIS one out first! Special thanks to you Steve! Yours is NEXT!
 

Last edited:
Upvote 50

deershed

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Banner find in my book any day. Congrats on a Great piece of history!!

btw- voted banner
 

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CMDiamonddawg

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Great History on this soldiers dog tags . Hope to see it go to the Top ............ CMD
 

Garrett424

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Awesome find. It's great that you were able to trace it...
 

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DocBeav

DocBeav

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I Looked it up in "Identification Discs of Union Soldiers in the Civil War: A Complete Classification Guide and Illustrated History" by Larry B. Maier and Joseph W. Stahl. Think it is this one: Eagle 5A

Eagle 5A.jpg
 

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DocBeav

DocBeav

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Meant to put these in earlier but I wanted to incude pics of Steve's (Gigmaster's) 1830 dime. Not bad for being in the river all these years!
Steve dime front.jpg steve dime back.jpg
 

Scrappy

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Outstanding find. Exceptional and should "rise above" the posts. I'm tossing my chip into the banner pile
 

AlienLifeForm

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Not sure how I missed this, but my banner vote is in.
 

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Awesome find, congratulations! :occasion14:
 

A2coins

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Banner also Great find thanks for sharing this great [post!!!!!!
 

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