REV WAR AMERICAN MILITIA SHOE BUCKLE FOUND

[Castineman1779]

Glad u all enjoyed my last post "I Got Balls." I began hunting this site way back in 1995 and still today to my surprize 23 years later still swinging my coil in search of what I call the" 3 B"s". Balls, cannon, musket and pistols. Buttons and buckles, shoe, cartridge box, sling and neck stock . Worn out 1 White's XLT , 2 DFXs and just had to replace my Deus remote when on more than one occasion got it wet and was lost the sound on my last hunt last month. However stil scored a pounder American canon ball u saw in my last post in "Silent Search> Nope DEus has no such program. However lost the sound so had to stare at the screen while swinging the coil over rugged ground. My first multitasking event. LOL.
So ordered me a new remote and back on the hunt the other day. I luv finding cannon balls with 8 so far this season. 5 of which found in one site on this hundreds of acres of heavily wooded area. Started with 31 degree temps in hopes maybe a few more may surface. Although my favorite finds CBS I love finding show buckles with my first target with a reading of high 90s I expected to be trash to my surprize when I pulled out a god size plug a shoe buckle just rolled out of it. I have found maybe 30 or so buckle parts, frames but only one complete and this is the 2nd. They are rare when found intact as the British shoe buckles have iron tines and mostly rusted out. However this one is made if brass and a rare American survivor . It is also rare in that the Americans were only in Castine 3 weeks and the continued my hunt to find 2 grape shot and 1 fired pistol ball. Any tme after 23 years I find 4 keepers is a good hunt. Keep swinging the foils my friend and enjoy thus great hobby. Pics to follow. Gary

 

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[Digger RJ]

Congrats!!! Any pics?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

How can you tell British shoe buckles from American and how is it dated to the America Revolution...and how do you know it's militia?? Did they have special shoes made for militia members? Part of a uniform? Please educate a west coast detectorist.

 

[Castineman1779]

Sorry for the delay in getting pics up . In this battle/ siege was made up of British and American militia. For me it is easy to tell the differance from American or British since 95 % found at this site are British with all enlistend men wearing the same issued shoe buckles with their uniform. However except for the American militia officers that no doubt were wearing uniforms the enlistedmen wore regular clothes but unlike the officers that had fancy buckles they wore plain types different than the Brits. Look at pic # 3 . BUckle on the left is American in brass and the Brit on the right brass frame with iron tines rusted away..

 

[Wildcat1750]

Beautiful buckle!

 

[Castineman1779]

Wildcat1750- Thank u and yes they are all beautiful wether found as fragments, frames or complete like this one. The Brits were issue the same red coats and buckles . The officer however had to buy their own and their shoe buckles are all different and fancy. I will look thru my pics to find and officer type and upload soon. Having some problems with the uploads. G
Here r two I found in Castine . The first an officer's fancy shoe buckle found last month is we ground. Looks like it was lost yesterday however the iron tones long ago rusted away. THe second called a "Neck Stock". This type of buckle often attached to leather and worn around the neck of an officer to help ward off a blow from a sword. Rarely lost and expect this officer died from wounds in a skirmish.

 

[xcopperstax]

Amazing finds Gary. I would definitely be really happy to find a complete Rev war buckle! When you find them unbroken like that you have to wonder if they lost the entire shoe? As usual thanks for the great story!

 

[Castineman1779]

xcoppestax- Thanks an I did give that some thought about loosing the whole shoe but find leather can still be found on period relics and most probably the leather holding it on got torn and it just fell off. Hope u find yours my friend. Coming the end of my 23rd year and it has been to my surprize a great one and keeps me making tha hour trip. G

 

[xcopperstax]

xcoppestax- Thanks an I did give that some thought about loosing the whole shoe but find leather can still be found on period relics and most probably the leather holding it on got torn and it just fell off. Hope u find yours my friend. Coming the end of my 23rd year and it has been to my surprize a great one and keeps me making tha hour trip. G

I haven't found many shoe buckle parts but I have found one complete colonial era buckle that I am super excited about. It still moves and everything. It will always be one of my best finds! Thanks again for the story!

 

[Relicific]

That’s a dream hunt my friend.

 

[Whyme]

Very nice buckle! Congrats!

 

[CRUSADER]

"They are rare when found intact as the British shoe buckles have iron tines and mostly rusted out. However this one is made if brass and a rare American survivor "

Can you clarify, you think the British didn't make that complete copper-alloy type? Most of ours were like that, only a small handful had iron inserts(Chapes). So your statement above is factually incorrect, unless I've misread it?

What I do agree with is its rare to find complete, so nicely done on that one!

 

[Castineman1779]

CRUSADER- Yes indeed sir u are indeed correct and I sit in error here. in Neuman's book about REv WAr items he has pics of an array of shoe buckles of both all brass and some with iron tines (chapes) He bunches them together as both British and American. What i failed to do in my original post wa to wrote about the buckles I have only found at this site. There were two Brit REgts plus the Royal Artillery that fought in Castine. I have hunted the encampments of both the 82nd and 74th encampments and the enisted buckles issud to them as part of their uniforms is consistant with the pic # 3 and found many . As for the Royal Artillery I do have also a pair found piggy back right in the middle of a known Brit Artillery emplacement. They have fancy designs and also part of the iron chaps remaining. I will try to get a pic u of them. Now for what I consider the American militia all brass shoe buckle one must remember of the 873 enlisted men gathered up from Mass, and no Continentals, few if any had uniforms so there buckles would be civilian in nature and by the fact they fought as militia then considered to be military . BTW prior to 1775 before we were all Brits and in most cases your King George pretty well supplied them to the colonies . In 23 years I have found many varieties of shoe buckle frags, frames ,with some chaps remaining , but a few that were complete as this buckle. On the officer side of both armies it is almost impossible to say who wore them unless found in the middle of Fort George or close to it. As always thanks for your imput . Gary

 

[Professor of Engineering]

I love the complete buckle!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Nice colonial shoe buckle find Gary!
What I find amazing is that you've been detecting the same site since 1995 and you're still making finds!
I feel that attributing your shoe buckle directly to a Revolutionary War Soldier is a stretch though, as one of the locals who farmed the area could just as easily have lost this piece.
I'm not a Rev War expert either though, so please don't take my statement as a negative, I'm just sharing my thoughts.

Dave

 

[Castineman1779]

Dave
Thanks for your opinion on the shoe buckle and it very well may be. However as I understand it by the WAr of 1812 shoe buckles pretty well lost favor. This area was not farmed but logged in the early 1800s as evidence by early horse shoe and oxen shoe finds plus many axe heads . Always forested .BTW across the road from this buckle a few weeks back found a British show buckle frame that indeed is REv WAr. Looks exactly like the one I put up missing the chaps. Also in this small artillery impact area over the last month have found 6 of the 8 cannon balls , many grape shot , mortar frags and yesterday a rare period set of iron sissors and an 82nd REgt of Foot button. All REv WAr relics. The buckle favors REv War but yes many can make call it as a stretch that have not hunted this site. Nothing negative from your comment and thanks> Gary