Rifle pit finds...

[HutSiteDigger]

Dug out a rifle pit this morning in Stafford,Va ... couple bullets, knapsack stuff, two cuff eagle buttons, busted up ny militia and a decorative button. along with about 100 nails and other iron/busted up copper stuff & broken glass.

Got two more rifle pits in the same spot i plan on getting to in the next couple days, plan on making a video..

 

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[Threshold]

Nice haul!

 

[Evolution]

You got a lot of goodies there. I'd be psyched up to get back there... Best of luck on your return trip.

 

[Twinkletoes]

Nice finds! Good luck with your hunt! H Digs!

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[Erik in NJ]

What's a rifle pit and how do you find one?

 

[JohnnyRebCSA]

Holy smoke! Relics seem to jump out of the ground for you!

About 20 years ago (before it was developed) I came upon around 75 rifle pits dug by Burnside's army at a location where they rested three days before continuing on their way to Knoxville. Those things were on the back ridge in their rear.....everywhere! Did you know I did not find a single relic? Not even one dropped minie. Evidently, they never occupied them after all that work.

I did find a knife from one of the Confederate rifle pits at Mill Springs and a knapsack buckle from a Federal pit there, too......thats it. Glad to see you doing well there and I wish you the best! Keep the pics/info coming for us.

 

[Squatty]

I second that... what's a rifle pit?

 

[JohnnyRebCSA]

What's a rifle pit and how do you find one?

They were similar to our modern 'foxholes'. Where the foxhole goes straight down and is circular in shape, a rifle pit was dug in a straight line with the dirt thrown out of the shallow trench toward the enemy position.....kind of creating a mound of dirt to get behind for protection. The continuous pile of dirt made a great perch to place your musket upon for shooting.

I have seen rifle pits only large enough for two or three soldiers and some large enough for ten or fifteen. Most, at that time, were maybe three feet deep.....I have seen deeper, though. These were on the perimeter of an army....maybe in the rear to protect that area or if the enemy was known to be in the front then pits would be dug in that area. To give you an idea of what to look for ...... have you been hiking in the woods and came upon a spot where a big tree had been uprooted and fell over many years ago with the tree completely decomposed but leaving behind a mound of dirt from the roots? That is what small rifle pits look like.....just a big bump on top of the ground, and, with the natural covering of fallen leaves it fits right in with the forest floor but has that 'hump' protruding on top of the ground. This may give you the idea and you can now imagine something like that but long enough for five, or more, soldiers to get behind for protection.

Wish I had taken pictures of all those rifle pits I had came upon at the rear of Burnside's army. The reason there were so many is because the main road was on top of the ridge behind the army with the main body of troops down in the valley camped on a farm. They wanted rifle pits to give the rear guard protection in case a Confederate force traveled the road and wanted to come down the ridge upon the camped Federals. These rifle pits dotted the landscape and did not interlink....that is......you will come upon one and maybe ten or fifteen feet away there will be another....then ten or twenty feet away there is another. When you have a long line then you have a trench, or earthworks. Rifle pits dot the landscape instead.

Hutsitedigger has provided a picture of one above. See how it still has a big 'bank' of dirt still there? It has a tree growing out of the middle of it. Most have filled in over the years and aren't nearly still that deep. Those guys constructed that rifle pit deeper than most. It has been most common, for me, to see what is left of a rifle pit that is only one or two feet deep at this time. When you come upon one for the first time you will think, "Well this is a little odd". Stop and look around and you'll see what I did. "Look, there's another one....and over there another one.....and another one right over there".

Take time to notice any subtle changes in the landscape. Remember, most will now be shallow from being naturally filled back in over the years. If you think you may have found one look around. They usually had a network of them to support each other. You may only have five or six rifle pits or you could have several.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

JohnnyReb summed it up.... Here is a mock video I created of the new Stafford Civil Park where there are hut sites, rifle pits outlined.. My sound did not work in this video for some reason so I have to go do it again. In the next day or so, I will add a video explaining the hut sites and rifle pits in this park. There were over 140,000+ Union soldiers camped and moving through Stafford,Virginia. Once I re-do the video again with sound you will understand.

[video=facebook;530506797017988]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=530506797017988&notif_t=video_processed[/video]

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Well this video thingy aint working on here either.. you can find the video here https://www.facebook.com/CannonPit?hc_location=timeline

No sound, about 6-9 mins in is the rifle pit in this park... (note this is not the rifle pit I dug out, there were camps and rifle pits alll over stafford) this park is protected land now.

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[wvwildman]

nice finds congrats HH

 

[parsonwalker]

Well done my friend! Two friends and I heading to a battlefield tomorrow morning. Will post all the tongue-and-wreaths tomorrow night along with the OVMs and SNYs which I know are just waiting to be dug up.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

You got a lot of goodies there. I'd be psyched up to get back there... Best of luck on your return trip.

Pretty typical dig really for Stafford, I've been hunting Stafford since the 1990s started out with my dad who still hunts sometimes, he was a well known digger in the area back in the 70/80s and dug lot of pits and hut-sites,etc!! any place we go in Stafford, if you put a good 2-6 hours of hunting in you will at least worse case came out with a bullet or a general service eagle button. 80% of what I find in Stafford now are 3 ringers,sharps bullets, general service eagle buttons, ny militia buttons, federal staff buttons, a few knapsack stuff, some silly medical bottle or champagne bottle, melted lead and a bunch of iron.. Maybe every 6 months, if you work hard enough, you may dig a eagle breastplate or a us plate or find a corps badge..

Lately.. it just seems i can't dig anything really good like a Virginia state button or a confederate general staff button..

My last Confederate button was a busted up state North Carolina a couple months ago that i dug in a Confederate hut!! you can hunt a confederate camp for 6 hours and be lucky to come out with a en-field bullet or even just a back of a button now-a days around the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania area, while, if you hunt across the river in Stafford if you don't come out of the woods with a eagle button or 3 ringer!! then you are doing something wrong... I have seen 6 year old kids dig general service eagle buttons and union artifacts in their own back-yards in Stafford, that is how much union artifacts there are still in Stafford (you are talking over 140,000+ soldiers camping and moving through Stafford for 4 years) ... It just seems like all the rare stuff is gone and now it is just all this common general service Union artifacts left and it kind of gets tiring after a-while spending 5 hours digging, digging and digging and only finding a eagle button and a 3 ringer bullet and not a big "WOW" relic, like a ID tag or a OVM plate, Martingales or something in that nature....when you put good amount of time into it.. It may seem like i should run right back out to this spot where I find these rifle pits, and spend hours and hours of digging them out but.. i've been there and done this before many of times, they can wait a couple days or even til next month.. I know there is probably a few eagle buttons and ny militia buttons and 3 ringers in there but I bet you there won't be a big "WOW" relic for me because that is how it goes for me lately with Civil War relics!! that is why I like to drive now-a days to the Northern Neck of Virginia and hunt colonial and early 1800s house site/plantation sites where there was no Civil War action.

And yah JohnnyReb there was small little depressions on the hill top about 5-10 feet apart... noticed them last month while detecting this area and finding a couple bullets and a eagle buttons near by them, my detector went nutz with iron signals all around the depression areas and knew they were rifle pits! so, went out yesterday morning and dug into one and sure enough they are... Hopefully!! in the next day or so i will make a video and hopefully others on here can start noticing what a non-dug hut site or rifle pit looks like, i have made a few videos before but it's good to let other hunters who don't know how to look for low points in the ground,etc that indicates a hut site, rifle pit, cellar, etc.. what too look for...

 

[Erik in NJ]

Well done my friend! Two friends and I heading to a battlefield tomorrow morning. Will post all the tongue-and-wreaths tomorrow night along with the OVMs and SNYs which I know are just waiting to be dug up.

Ok thanks for the explaination of a "rifle pit" now please tell me what are OVMs and SNYs ?? Thanks!!

 

[Thommy]

"OVM" is Ohio Volunteer Militia, "SNY" is state of New York. "Plates" are belt-plates.

 

[Thommy]

Oh, I forgot "tongue and wreath" which refers to the "tongue" of the buckle locking into the "wreath". I'm attaching a CS sword belt plate which is a Tongue and Wreath.

 

[jtomlinson]

Awesome !!!!! great finds

 

[scott9050]

Great info, looking forward to what you put up.

 

[Skelly607]

NICE FINDS!