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Army of the Potomac litterbugs

wilkere

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Location
Jacksonville N.C.
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur, Tesoro Silver Sabre
Last week I was able to visit a old stomping ground near Fredicksburg Va. since I was attending a Marine Corps conference up in Quantico. About ten years ago I was able to get a few three ringers and some lead slag in this tiny valley between two hillocks in the woods off of Interstate 95. I always wondered over the years if there was anything left as I did not do the area justice with my old Tesoro detector. Nowadays with armed with a Minelab Excalibur I jumped into the woods from a newly laid parking lot and searched for the area I knew “they” were at from my hunt ten years prior.

I walked along the ridgeline of a meandering hilltop which may have been a footpath long ago, and stumbled upon some old hand formed bricks haphazardly strewn about under the leaves in places on a flat plateau. With mosquitoes buzzing and ticks crawling I did manage to find a very old piece of silver spoon and a flat button and old iron kettle pieces. But nothing definitive.

I was getting a bit tired as the Minelab is no lightweight and it was getting late in the afternoon so the woods were darking up a bit, so I decided to head back straight over some ridgelines and toward the sounds of traffic. I soon descended into a small valley and pondered that this may be the spot from before, so I slowed down and started to scan the center where in the past runoff from rains carved a small depression. It was nice to hear the detector sound off after a long silence and lead slag was soon in hand, then a foot away the first bullet sounded off.
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I knew this was the spot, and started to work every inch slowly, as the time before I just ran thru and never had the opportunity to go back like I planned. As I flipped over the divot with my boot and saw the company badge lying in the dirt, I knew the relic hunting gods were treating me with a favor! The week before I lost a WW2 lapel pin I just purchased at a military show for 50 clams and I guess this was a payback from the Gods for being such a swell guy!
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What I really need to I.D. are these pieces of some sort of tin. Some of the pieces have a copper threaded stud soldered onto the top. It was found within a few feet of the cap badge and some minne balls. Anyone have a clue on what was inside 147 years ago?
Semper Fi
Bob
http://www.okinawarelics.com
 
Upvote 0
Nice story and great find 8)
 
Nice finds.

I found an identical 'B' a few weeks back on private property by Valley Forge. It looked like at one point it had a silver plating which was almost completely gone. The area is known to have lots of Boy Scout activity/camping so the archaeologist thought it was from the Boy Scouts. Now I'm starting to think they may have been wrong.

NJ
 
N.J.THer said:
Nice finds.

I found an identical 'B' a few weeks back on private property by Valley Forge. It looked like at one point it had a silver plating which was almost completely gone. The area is known to have lots of Boy Scout activity/camping so the archaeologist thought it was from the Boy Scouts. Now I'm starting to think they may have been wrong.

NJ
This badge also had two small prongs on back as attachments, one of them was missing on this one. I'll check on the silver plating on this when I get home, I sure hope we have some CW hat badges!
 
Company "B" very nice find. keep looking there I'm sure there is more! I've recently found a company "A" in TN cheers
 

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4-H said:
Company "B" very nice find. keep looking there I'm sure there is more! I've recently found a company "A" in TN cheers
Nice Company A, I need to find one of those next! Any guess on that tin that was found nearby? I wonder if it was a chow tin or maybe a container for the lead?
 

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