Artillery, Anti personel, or Anti cavalry and civil war finds.

[Poptopagain]

Made it out to a Maryland Civil War battlefield and made a couple of good finds. I'm not exactly sure what the disc is but it's about the size of a half dollar. The rivet was about seven inches down. The other is a heavy piece of iron. I have pull lots of shrapnel from Read Parrot rounds and came across this piece. It has points on all sides. I was thinking that it was something that was placed on the ground for disabling horse. But the more I think, it appears that it has been fired. Perhaps as antipersonnel. Any suggestions? The other pic is of two pieces of shrapnel.

Happy Hunting!

 

[Broken knee]

It looks it be a well rusted jack? HH
Broken Knee

 

[bocephus99]

Cool find

"Cavalry played an important role in many Civil War battles. When practical (hard ground was needed) caltrops were used to disable cavalry horses. They were also strewn on roads to disrupt troop and supply movements. A favorite type were small cast examples, just over an inch long which were light enough to to stay embedded in the horse’s hoof."

 

[jrsherman]

THAT is a nice find! You have found one of the most coveted of iron relics employed during the Civil War! Congratulations on it, there aren't very many recovered. If I remember right, TyMcMurray found one near the retreat route last year. WTG!

 

[romeo-1]

Yep...that is an awesome iron relic. Hit it with the electrolysis and put it up for display!

 

[RiverRat3]

Flat item looks like a piece of lead that was flattened into a poker chip.

 

[Silver Searcher]

Nice relic I would leave it as it is, electrolysis might take some of the detail away

SS

 

[Kiros32]

That caltrop is way up there on my Want to Find list, nice finds man!

 

[Poptopagain]

Thanks Guys! I now have it in the electrolysis machine. I will post some new pics when it fizzes down to the metal. RR that flat piece is made of copper or brass. It had the deep green patina on it when I dug it. The pic washed it out a bit.

 

[Poptopagain]

As promised, here are some pictures of the Caltrop after a quick 3 hour cleaning.

 

[hellhoot]

Interesting and thanks for the post i would have probably tossed something like that and not known what it was.

 

[civilman1]

THAT is a nice find! You have found one of the most coveted of iron relics employed during the Civil War! Congratulations on it, there aren't very many recovered. If I remember right, TyMcMurray found one near the retreat route last year. WTG!

Great dig's Mike I was with Ty when he found that one down at the Blue and Grey Hunt,very rare in my book!!Excellent save there

 

[creskol]

Some good finds for sure. But, with regards to your "caltrop" please see the post by "Badger 5" on the What Is It forum titled
"Trying to find out what it is" which was posted yesterday at 08:18:13 PM. Here is the link: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,391260.0.html

Some valuable information on all the followup posts.

 

[bocephus99]

Some good finds for sure. But, with regards to your "caltrop" please see the post by "Badger 5" on the What Is It forum titled
"Trying to find out what it is" which was posted yesterday at 08:18:13 PM. Here is the link: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,391260.0.html

Some valuable information on all the followup posts.

tks for the link Creskol and tks to thecannonballguy......we never stop learning

Still very cool finds.....

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

You're welcome, Bocephus. Also, thank you to Creskol for posting the link. My only purpose at TreasureNet is to share well-documented knowledge with my fellow relic-diggers. It's not about ego, or status. It's about discovering the Historical Facts regarding the objects we diggers find.

Regarding caltrops, the key issue -- besides their absolutely-essential Tetrahedral (four-armed) form -- is that there seems to be no Historical documentation (a battle-report, a soldier's diary, a "period" newspaper report) that caltrops (also known as crows-feet/jack-nails/horse-cripplers, etc) were used within the United States' borders during all the years between the American Revolution and the 20th-century's Labor Union conflicts. (Labor Union goons used home-made caltrops on roads, by welding large nails together into the necessary Tetrahedral form.)

For example, most of the 8 or 7 or 6-armed objects (like Poptopagain found) are offered for sale as civil war caltrops. But regarding Historical documentation of their use in that war ...there seems to be none. It is now possible to do a keyword-search of the entire (126-volume) Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. But the word caltrops -- nor their alternative-names crows-feet, horse-cripplers, jack-nails, etc -- is nowhere to be found in all those Official Records tens-of-thousands of civl war army reports and correspondence. Sure seems like if caltrops were used somewhere in the US civil war, there's be at least one report of it. But there's none.

So, don't believe what you read on Ebay.

 

[fishalaska24]

Wow that cleaned up extremely well. Awesome finds!!!

HH, Jake

 

[tymcmurray]

Great find!!!
Here are some photos af on I found a couple of years ago.

 

[SkyPirate]

Very cool find! I have never seen one of these.