HomeGuardDan
Bronze Member
Well I decided to take a weekend off from my local colonial watering hole and travel inland to meet up with good friend Beau Ouimette to explore a rather long stretch of water. This was a 10 mile paddle with a few fords and sites along the way that ended with a bridge that had been burned during the civil war.
The trip was actually fairly lacking and disappointing. Had it not been for the beautiful weather and good company, it would have been a worthless trip.
The first few fords were hardly identifiable and void of anything. Then we hit the ford that I had been looking forward to hitting for some time now and it looked perfect. Unfortunately it was also almost entirely void of signals. I did manage my favorite find of the trip there with an 18th century cast iron pot that was almost intact. I have two more pieces that fit inside the base leaving just a 5" or so hole, obviously not reusable, but certainly will display nicely. There is a very close example here The Keeper's Blog: Iron Cauldrons
Afterwards I recovered a flat button and a fired musket ball...nothing earth shattering. On the way down the homestretch Beau and I floated past an area where undoubtedly slaves were making bricks for the construction of the numerous brick plantations along this river (it is documented by local museums that slaves actually used the clay from the banks of this and other local rivers for brick making). What is cool about these handmade bricks are deformities (notice the pieces of river gravel stuck in the brick and the firing layers).
We finished where I recovered a bayonet not too long ago, a bridge site that was worth a second look. The machines were useless here so we just fanned with our hands and snorkeled around a bit. I was able to identify a few neat items, including 1 (possibly 2) flattened bullets from the civil war. These would have been run over on the bridge and flattened down or impressed in the wood and then ended up in the water when the bridge burned (or simply run over and thrown in the water). I also recovered some complete catridges (3 to be exact). All rim fire and unique. The large one is potentially war related, it is a .32 or .36 (not measured yet sorry) rimfire with an H marked case. The .22 is marked U and the .22 cap is marked US, always think these are cool to find. I wish one were a spencer, burnside or other, but will take them.
I also recovered the nail driven through the chunk of lead (perhaps a cut bullet, but who knows) and a smashed (probably fired) sharps bullet from the civil war. My last decent find was the horse charm made of lead. Not a group of great finds, but they were fun to bring home. The pot will be a fun project and I will post it when I am done, might try some restoration to the missing parts.
HH
Dan
The trip was actually fairly lacking and disappointing. Had it not been for the beautiful weather and good company, it would have been a worthless trip.
The first few fords were hardly identifiable and void of anything. Then we hit the ford that I had been looking forward to hitting for some time now and it looked perfect. Unfortunately it was also almost entirely void of signals. I did manage my favorite find of the trip there with an 18th century cast iron pot that was almost intact. I have two more pieces that fit inside the base leaving just a 5" or so hole, obviously not reusable, but certainly will display nicely. There is a very close example here The Keeper's Blog: Iron Cauldrons
Afterwards I recovered a flat button and a fired musket ball...nothing earth shattering. On the way down the homestretch Beau and I floated past an area where undoubtedly slaves were making bricks for the construction of the numerous brick plantations along this river (it is documented by local museums that slaves actually used the clay from the banks of this and other local rivers for brick making). What is cool about these handmade bricks are deformities (notice the pieces of river gravel stuck in the brick and the firing layers).
We finished where I recovered a bayonet not too long ago, a bridge site that was worth a second look. The machines were useless here so we just fanned with our hands and snorkeled around a bit. I was able to identify a few neat items, including 1 (possibly 2) flattened bullets from the civil war. These would have been run over on the bridge and flattened down or impressed in the wood and then ended up in the water when the bridge burned (or simply run over and thrown in the water). I also recovered some complete catridges (3 to be exact). All rim fire and unique. The large one is potentially war related, it is a .32 or .36 (not measured yet sorry) rimfire with an H marked case. The .22 is marked U and the .22 cap is marked US, always think these are cool to find. I wish one were a spencer, burnside or other, but will take them.
I also recovered the nail driven through the chunk of lead (perhaps a cut bullet, but who knows) and a smashed (probably fired) sharps bullet from the civil war. My last decent find was the horse charm made of lead. Not a group of great finds, but they were fun to bring home. The pot will be a fun project and I will post it when I am done, might try some restoration to the missing parts.
HH
Dan
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