✅ SOLVED Can you identify this bullet

[Keith mitchell]

Hello, I'm brand new to metal detecting and found this in my back yard. I live on 13 acres across the river from downtown Chattanooga and old maps show my land being a "Site of old fortification" This item weighs .285 ounces and appears to be lead. Is it a bullet from the civil war?

 

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[xr7ator]

I don't think that is a bullet. Keep at it!

 

[ticndig]

It looks more like a finial can you see a mold seam?

 

[Keith mitchell]

No I can’t see a Seam.

 

[Keith mitchell]

I think you are right. It does look like a finial. thanks

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Ticndig is definitely correct, Keith... it is a finial.
In case you'd like to hear a more-specific ID:
Being found "at the site of an old fortification" (old meaning in this case pre-20th-Century), and being only 1/2-inch long by 3/8th-inch wide, it is most likely a Cap Box finial. That "box" was a small leather pouch which held a soldier's copper percussion-caps, for priming his blackpowder musket or pistol.

When manufactured, your finial had a short round stud projecting out from its base. The stud went through a small hole in the leather cap-box's upper front side, and a rivet-disc was hammered onto the stud to tightly secure it to the box.

Ticndig's photo shows several excavated civil war era cap-box and cartridge-box finials whose riveted base is still intact. A few of those still have a little of the box's leather body preserved between the finial's flat base and the rivet-disc.

The cap-box was worn on the soldier's belt.

I should mention... most of the cap-box and cartridge-box finials we dig are made of brass. The lead (actually, lead-solder or pewter) ones are "said to be" Confederate-made -- but we know some pewter finials were manufactured before the civil war. So, there's no way to know for certain. For example, civilian game-hunters would also use a cap-box... and might have brought it with him when he enlisted into the army.

Almost forgot to mention:
I see your posts in this discussion are your very first posts here at TreasureNet. So, welcome to T-Net's "What Is It?" forum... the very best place on the internet to get unknown objects CORRECTLY identified. I hope you will continue to read this forum -- you can learn a LOT of valuable information for free here. I certainly have. (I hang around to give something back... and, I'm still learning.)

 

[BAW]

I don't think it is a stud for holding the flap of a holster or cap box closed. There doesn't seem to be a way to fasten it to the body of the holster or box, and it seems to be a little too large. Look up collar button bullet on Google and see if you think that is it.

 

[Richard Guy]

looks like the end off the 'Lost Dutchman's' guitar cord

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

BAW, your theory is interesting, but I'm standing firm on my ID of the object as a Cap-Box finial. This one is made of either pewter or lead-solder (a.k.a. "Hardened-lead alloy"), which tends to be brittle, unlike a brass finial. In my opinion, the rivet-stud on this finial's base broke off. If you look closely at a couple of the finials in Ticndig's group-photo, you'll see that finial #5 in the 2nd row and finial #8 in the 5th row (both of which are pewter or lead-solder) appear to have a broken-off rivet-stud. Also, if you look closely at Keith's photo of his find, its base is not flat (like a "collar-button bullet" base should be), but instead has an irregularly-shaped projection at its center. I think that short projection is the remnant of the broken-off rivet-stud.