ANy ideas found in a civil war camp.

vadigger89 · Mar 12, 2012

My friend dug this in a civil war camp. Not sure what it is. I do not have the item and do not know exactly how long it is. I would say it is approximately 4 inches in length. Have you ever seen anyting like it?

duggap · Mar 12, 2012

My guess is that is what is left from a two pronged fork.

vadigger89 · Mar 12, 2012

Cool didnt know they had two pronged forks. Thats what he thought it could have been a fork but we werent sure.

Daedalus · Mar 12, 2012

The older forks were just two pronged , it was not until the Victorian era that the Four prong forks came into vogue.
Even though there are a few samples that have been found that were four pronged back a few hundred years .

vadigger89 · Mar 12, 2012

Was this a pre civil war fork? If you can find any pictures of one anywhere could you put the link up so I can take a look I would like to know when they were used. Thanks

Shady Digger · Mar 12, 2012

Looks like it had a wood/bone handle. Notice the abrupt difference in the diameter of the metal, where it goes from fairly round to a smaller rod. Found one similar to it, but not exactly the same.

TheCannonballGuy · Mar 12, 2012

Vadigger89 wrote:
> Was this a pre civil war fork?

Two-tine forks go back waaay before the civil war ...in fact, for almost as long as humans have been using metal eating-utensiles. But the specific version your friend found was most probably manufactured in the early-1800s.

> If you can find any pictures of one anywhere could you put the link up so I can take a look
> I would like to know when they were used.

The first photo shows an iron two-tine fork which was excavated from the site of US President James Madison's mansion, "Montpelior," in Virginia. (Madison was born in 1751, and served as US President from 1809 to 1817.) So the one in that photo is from from the late-1700s to the early-1800s.

The second photo shows the version you found, which had a "collar" below the tines, to help hold a wood or bone handle in place.

I should mention... alhough your friend found his two-tine fork in a civil war campsite, it definitely was NOT a military-issued one. American soldiers were responsible for providing their own eating-utensiles until 1874, when the US Army first specified (and provided) a military-issue version for the soldiers.