A (friendly) invasion of Northern Virginia!

[Mach1Pilot]

Bedford Bob, DeArmitt PA, Life is Good, myself and my sons have been quite impaitent waiting for all of the Central PA snow to melt... so what do you do when its snow covered in the North? Head South!

I know a farmer in Northern Virginia that has some property not too far from a known Civil War battlefield, in talking with him the other day I asked and was granted permission to search virtually anywhere on his 750+ acres.

After a short week of doing some research, we narrowed down a few potential Civil War campsites on his properties, and today all of us except Life is Good were able to make the trek South and begin our friendly! invasion of Northern Virginia.

Arriving at 0800, the first stop was a creek that was supposed to have seen some Civil War activity... well if there was, we didn't find any at that spot! We did find an early 1900's looking foundation which turned up a 1916 wheatie for me in the short time we hunted it. It was my only coin of the day, but for once I beat "coin magnet" DeArmitt PA in the coin count! My son also got a wheatie at that site, year unknown.

Most of the rest of the day was spent checking out various potential relic locations... one was a cool rock outcropping where it was apparent that someone mined rocks there in the distant past.... BedfordBob pulled out a cool relic here but I'll let him tell you about it. But the rest of us were skunked at this site.

It amazed me that some of the field locations were very silent and absent of signals.... we don't have many places like that at home!

But around 4 pm, we finally found what we were looking for... a site with CW activity. In the course of the next hour, lots of cool relics were rescued from their 140 year resting spot. I got a good flat button and a few cartridge casings (sorry guys, I'm not sure of the type), but was shut out on the lead digging. My oldest son also got in on the action, he found a musket ball, a three ringer, several more of those cartridge casings and probably the treasure of the day... a part of a carbine action. Which gun it fits is still a mystery to us.. but I'm sure we will find the answer to that riddle soon! Not too bad for his first time ever running an Etrac! BedfordBob and DeArmittPA will chime in with their finds for the day when they get a chance.

The pictures are of the uncleaned items... while not of the best quality I'll get better ones up tomorrow. I'm just too tired after this all day excursion which included 6.5 hours of driving.

This was a first for me and my sons.... Civil War relic hunting that is. While we were hoping for a belt plate or two, it was not a bad start!

 

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[vayank54]

Darn how did I miss that stuff From the pics it looks like the casing are Spencer casings. I'm glad you all were able to find something. It's hard to find a spot in this area that hasn't been hit.

 

[63bkpkr]

That is a great smattering of various targets for a first time out. I'd suspect that is a breach lever and it looks like your target dates go from the Civil War into more modern times, the fishing spinner and penny. What year is the penny and is it a wheat? What will you find the next time out?? Please continue to share.

Herb

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Darn how did I miss that stuff From the pics it looks like the casing are Spencer casings. I'm glad you all were able to find something. It's hard to find a spot in this area that hasn't been hit.

I'm glad you left a few behind for the rest of us! Its quite a treat for us who are not in an area with CW history to find this kind of relic. Thanks for the ID on the casings.

That is a great smattering of various targets for a first time out. I'd suspect that is a breach lever and it looks like your target dates go from the Civil War into more modern times, the fishing spinner and penny. What year is the penny and is it a wheat? What will you find the next time out?? Please continue to share.

Herb

Yep, a modern fishing lure....it did not need to be shown but it was in the picture and I was too tired to take another one. The wheat is a 1916. Both of these were from a different site than the other relics, but all found on the same farm.

 

[vayank54]

Your welcome on the ID and for leaving you some things. To be honest I would hate to see half the stuff I've left behind. Sorry I can't help out on the lever. I'm not sure what goes to. Hopefully someone will know.

 

[pitdiggers]

That's a trip you guys made without an overnight stay! Nice saves though. I live in northern va and me and my sons hit the CW sites all of the time. Sometimes you can take for granted where you live for various reasons! Keep plugging away. We found an untouched camp over the last few weeks and have been pulling out some awesome buttons, bullets and the like. I am sure that farm will produce for you in the long run.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Oh yeah, it was a decent drive.... we will not be going every week to that site for sure so you Northern VA guys can rest easy. The strange thing is that we were sure we had done enough research to find one camp, as it seemed to be well detailed in the book... no doubt it was somewhere but not in the spot we thought it was. The signals at that spot were extremely sparse - as in nothing there at all, versus picked over by someone else with things missed and junk only remaining. So with an hour to go in the day we shifted and found a small site with these relics... actually BedfordBob got the most relics, perhaps he will post a picture.

We will go back, but not without some more research! And we may make it a two day event next time.

Its way too cool to hear that you found an untouched camp.. we found an untouched site close to home filled with colonial relics last summer. It was a blast!