How can you find a lost brass barreled CW cannon

[Pistolero]

Hello all,
I was talking to an old man that lives more or less in the battle area of a Civil War battle field not far from here. He has lived there all his life and his father, born 1859, before him. This friendly old fellow gave me permission to hunt his property and then told me, among other things, that a rifle barrel was found in his vegatable garden a few years ago. He said that there is a brass cannon, left behind by either the Yankees or the Confederates, somewhere in the woods nearby. It was known about when he was a kid, but now noone knows where it is. The patch of woods is low, damp land covered with very thick, almost inpenatrable undergrowth, scrubgrowth, trees, bushes, cudzu, etc.. It is undoubtedly now covered up damp silty dirt, peat moss, plant debris and scrubgrowth. I would not try to get in that area until the dead of wintertime when the foliage and plantlife is back or died down.

My question is this: How could you find something like that? I know nothing of electronics and technical gadgets. but I know that they have things they can fly over with in a helicopter and locate things like that. Heck, on CSI the other night old Grissum and that fine Sarah Seidel used some sort of gadget to locate a woman buried alive in the desert. It detected her body heat through the ground. Do they have something like that for detecting a large metal object?
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Pistolero

 

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[JakePhelps]

I would say the only parctical thing would just grin and bear the thorns and brush How big is this cannon? Is it above or below ground? how big is the area its lost in? gotta take all these into account maybe you could cut a path past all the overgrowth?

 

[Pistolero]

Hey guys,
Thanks for the input. The cannon is more than likely a typical field piece such as a 12 pdr Napoleon. the 10pdr Parrott Rifle and the 3" Orndance Rifle were rifled, iron or steel field pieces. By that time in the war most Union cannon were iron and steel, while some batteries still used brass 12 pdr Napoleon smoothbores. It could also be a smaller "Mountain Howitzer" either in 12 or 6 pdr. Remember, the Union and Confederates that fought this battle were cavalry commands.

Anyway, from what the man said I think he meant within a quarter of a mile. If he meant strictly that dense, low lying patch of woods then it is only a two or three hundred yarsds wide by a quarter of a mile at the most. He did not say if it was buried or not, but just that no one knew where it was now adays. I supposed they did when he was a young man. I am going back to talk to him again next Saturday. I work 2nd shift and Fri and Sat are my off days. I am really looking forward to detecting his property and some surrounding areas. But the dense patch of woods I shall investigate in the dead of winter when foliage and vegitation are at their thinnest. I am not too keen on running up on a hidden Copperhead, Cotton Mouth, or a Rattler! This weekend I will be content to just hunt his garden, where they found a rifle barrel some years ago.

Oh, as a matter of fact I generally hunt in all metal mode since I generally have only hunted C.W.sites.
Take care,
Pistolero

 

[JakePhelps]

I would ask him whereabouts exaclty that cannon is if he remembers, also if it was above or below ground.... If its above ground the snow still could cover it but a detector could get around that Wish you the best of luck in your pursuit for this cannon, its a great piece of history that should be found and preseved.

 

[Pistolero]

Hey Jake,
I am going back to talk to the old fellow. I hope he can think of more info on it. And as for snow, you seldom have to worry about that in central Alabama. But the damp, freezing biting wind is hell sometimes.
Dave

 

[JakePhelps]

Oops forgot to look where your from :P In that case go for it this winter! Wish you luck in finding it

 

[hollowpointred]

perhaps you could research whether there was a path or road there at the time. i would imagine if the troops disposed of the cannon they probably did so quite hastily. i doubt they would have trudged it off deep into the woods. if i were them, i would have dumped it somewhere off of the side of the road. just a thought.

 

[jeff of pa]

perhaps you could research whether there was a path or road there at the time. i would imagine if the troops disposed of the cannon they probably did so quite hastily. i doubt they would have trudged it off deep into the woods. if i were them, i would have dumped it somewhere off of the side of the road. just a thought.

or in a Crevice, Dam, Well, Or over a Cliff.

I know of 2 Being Dumped Down a Well During The French & Indian War.

 

[littleneckhalfshell]

"I know of 2 Being Dumped Down a Well During The French & Indian War."

Sounds interesting, now just to find the well, which brings me to an interesting odd bit of information.
I know of a Church in PA which was along Braddock's march. They kept getting water in the dirt cellar under the church sanctuary,
the member's of the church explored a little in the crawl space cellar and found a well that had been covered over when the church was built.
the well was excavated, but only some old bottles were found, (no cannon) but then maybe they didn't dig deep enough
I myself have seen the site of the well, but didn't ever take my dectector down there, there was a lot of trash around, even the remains of an old piano.

 

[Rhett Butler]

Pistolero, Your friends account of the brass cannon seems pretty close to a similar account of a brass cannon with complete carriage and caisson abandoned near Mountain Creek. Yes, it was a light cavalry brass howitser being rushed to help in the battle of Selma.Two more lost at Mulberry Creek crossing below Maplesville.Good Luck, Rhett

 

[Pistolero]

Hey Rhett,
Where is Mountain Creek? Is it near Selma? And Hollowpointed, the old original road bed is the dirt road in front of his house. What is now the modern paved road, which was built in like the 1930s, is about five hundred yards away. Between them is a low lying, densely overgrown patch of woods. I think in that is what he was talking about.

But now seems like if there was a whole cannon, carriage and all, lost or dumped somewhere nearby it would seem locals would know of it and that it would be handed down where it was. That is not something easy to hide.
Pistolero

 

[jeff of pa]

"I know of 2 Being Dumped Down a Well During The French & Indian War."

Sounds interesting, now just to find the well, which brings me to an interesting odd bit of information.

The Story With CORRECTIONS , Due To Memory Glitch When Typing Above :
? ? ? a. It was "3" CANNON
? ? ? ?b. It was a Natural Hole, Not MANMADE.

SUNBURY (aka SHAMOKIN) during F&I WAR.)

The Story : When we Take Into Consideration that BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT had occured but a year before this and their allies, the indians were still elated over this great victory and ready for new conquests ; the movements of the French at the time indicate this plainly, as shown by the tradition of the CANNON HOLE at the RACE GROUND ISLAND, in the WEST BRANCH (Of the Susquehanna) , as told the ENGLISH by the indians after peace, was that a party of French & Indians had left the LAKE COUNTRY in the fall of 1756 to make perminent advance to the forks of the SUSQUEHANNA, bringing along 3 Small BRASS CANNON.
Striking the headwaters of the Susquehanna (WEST BRANCH), they decended by water to about the mouth of the LOYAL SOCK CREEK, where, landing, they sent a reconnoitering party to the top of BLUE HILL over looking the forks and FORT AGUSTA, then partially built. seeing this advancement of the fort and the number of men guarding it, considered it imprudent to attack and so reported to the main body who, after consultation, decided to return ; as the water was falling, finding themselves encumbered with their cannon, they threw them into a deep pot hole, or eddy, at the upper end of the old time race ground island, which has been known as the CANNON HOLE ever Sinse.


This Paragraph Was Taken Word for Word From :

Report of the Commission
to Locate the Site of the
FRONTIER FORTS of PENNSYLVANIA.

VOLUME 1? Published in 1896. page 355.


IF ANYONE WANTS IT they Can Have It. The Odds Of Them Being There YET ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? HARD to SAY.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? It's Out of My Area, So It Would Take Me
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ALOT of Research, Before Even Traveling up There.
? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ?
?

 

[Pistolero]

Hey Jeff,
You ought to post your last post about where the cannon are on that "Tips" forum so people looking for just such lost stories can see it.
Pistolero

 

[jeff of pa]

Hey Jeff,
You ought to post your last post about where the cannon are on that "Tips" forum so people looking for just such lost stories can see it.
Pistolero

DONE

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,21527.msg141697.html#msg141697

 

[eathabs]

Jeff, the Loyalsock does flow into the West branch but I cannot think of any island in the West Branch large enough close to Sunbury that would hold a race track. However, Packer Island, now refered to as "the Island" is large enough to put the Indy Speedway on it. Am I thinking too modern in terms of horse racing? I would think that we have only had horse racing in this country for the last 100 or 150 years or so. And besides, the area in and around Sunbury would not have a large enough population to support such activity.

 

[cptbil]

JEFF:
If I were you, I'd get either a good PI or Two Box Detector...
Either of which will have plenty of depth :P for your cannon...
AND!
If the " brush " is heavy, your idea of waiting for it to clear (Winter) is a good idea !
BUT!
The best " Tool " of all is...
Make sure of the location!
Saves a whole bunch of wasted time/effort!
Cptbil & Bugs