Civil War Axe Head?

[Red River Campaign 1864]

Found this large axe head at a Civil War battlefield site in South Louisiana a couple of days ago! There was a lot of built up Confederate entrenchments in the area but also years of sugarcane farming! Would love to hear from the experts of a way of dating certain shapes and sizes of axe heads! Saw a couple of online carts but hard to tell the difference between each one without being a "axe man"! I know it's NOT a artillery shell or cannonball but love to figure out a little history of this recent find! Thanks for any and all help!


The mud was so thick, it stuck to the axe head like cement!


After a light cleaning but before electrolysis!

 

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[Rookster]

nice find.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

From what I can dig up the Federal Issue Axe of the period looks like the "Baltimore Kentucky" or the "Jersey" from the above diagram. A polled head with lips (flat back and those cheeks on either side of the hole that give additional wood contact for support).

The Confederates were less formal in what equipment was used.

 

[Tpmetal]

The Confederates were less formal in what equipment was used.

lol thats one way of putting it. More like they had to scrape together anything they could, including clothing. Most items brought by the soldiers themselves.

 

[Hawks88]

Nice find. Congrats

 

[A2coins]

Nice find looks like the real deal!!!!!!!

 

[DCMatt]

lol thats one way of putting it. More like they had to scrape together anything they could, including clothing. Most items brought by the soldiers themselves.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but this statement is a popular myth. Early in the war, many Confederate units wore commutation system jackets as well as captured Federal uniforms, but from 1864 onward, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had a standard uniform supplied by the CSA.

By 1864, the Confederacy had established enough infrastructure to have decent supply depots and supply line logistics (Western theater is the exception). This is evidenced by photographs of Confederate soldiers, killed in action or as prisoners, in the vicinity of Petersburg (Spring 1865) and surviving examples of uniforms. Close scrutiny of photos shows soldiers well clothed in jackets, vests, trousers, and even new shoes.

DCMatt
Private - 13th Virginia Infantry, Company I - Reenacted

https://www.13thva.com/

 

[Thom_Parham]

lol thats one way of putting it. More like they had to scrape together anything they could, including clothing. Most items brought by the soldiers themselves.

Actually, by the end of the second year of the war, the Confederate States began doing a pretty good job of distributing uniforms to their people. You had many patterns being produced in Richmond, Columbus Georgia, even in Ireland. They kept good records when those uniforms were being handed out, too. Not so much with shoes, or hardware like axes. They definitely had to make due with what they brought with them, found, or "requisitioned".

 

[Tpmetal]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but this statement is a popular myth. Early in the war, many Confederate units wore commutation system jackets as well as captured Federal uniforms, but from 1864 onward, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had a standard uniform supplied by the CSA.

By 1864, the Confederacy had established enough infrastructure to have decent supply depots and supply line logistics (Western theater is the exception). This is evidenced by photographs of Confederate soldiers, killed in action or as prisoners, in the vicinity of Petersburg (Spring 1865) and surviving examples of uniforms. Close scrutiny of photos shows soldiers well clothed in jackets, vests, trousers, and even new shoes.

DCMatt
Private - 13th Virginia Infantry, Company I - Reenacted

https://www.13thva.com/

Weird I was taught differently. I was taught supplies were limited in the beginning of then war, then again when the union starting attacking supply lines like rail roads.

 

[kudzu74]

O boy, battle lines have been drawn...here we go again...

 

[devldog]

Nice find on the axehead. A hunting buddy found one almost exactly like the one you have there. He found his in close proximity to a trench line.

 

[devldog]

The Confederate Army and how they were uniformed from 1861 in the beginning until wars end in 1865. I won't get into a heated debate, but I will say this....the facts are right in front of us. Do the research. There are hundreds of books with pic's of the armies and how they appeared throughout that Terrible war. Research, Research, Research. One might just be surprised.

 

[DCMatt]

Do the research. One might just be surprised.

I know I was surprised.

I'm not saying there weren't any problems with supply lines or that Confederate troops were as well supplied as their Federal counterpart, but the notion of the ragged and starving Rebel soldier borders on legend.

One of my favorite research methods is reading letters from Civil War soldiers. There are hundreds of them posted on the Net.

I read a letter from a Union soldier who marched captured Confederates into his camp. He told his wife that his first order of business was finding trousers for all of them because they were so torn and tattered that he thought it was indecent.

I also read a letter from a Confederate soldier in the fortifications near Petersburg very late in the war. He was complaining that someone had stolen the butter out of his package/box from home - but the ham meat and jam was still in it.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

I love old dug axe heads, I have a bunch, I think I have a problem):

 

[devldog]

Who else but the Confederate Army could have waged war such as they did for 4 years? Many of the Confederate soldiers and their regiments were uniformed in Grey as they left their homes early in the wars beginning. As the war waged on and the Union had the Southern sea ports bottled up, it became a tremendous hardship for the South to export cotton with England for trade for the things needed for the Confedrate Army. Supplies such as arms, buttons, and dye for uniforms to name only a few things needed. By early 1863 it was said that no two Confederate soldiers looked alike. By this time many soldiers began receiving uniform clothing (hand sewn) from the homefront. Many Reb's by this time were wearing civilian trousers and a variation of captured or jackets sent from home. Rebs would many times liberate uniform clothing and footwear from captured Yanks. This was many times done not out of meanness, but out of necessity. One of my favorite all time pic's of late war Confetrit's is the one entitled "Lee's Men". This is a pic. of 3 captured Confetrit's at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863. The pic.shows the 3 Reb's standing and sitting definately st and upon some fence rails while attempting to obtain their individual identity. From everything you read, this pic. captures the Confetrit's appearance as they would have looked from 1863 to the wars end. I have this pic. hanging in my History room or my Hy

 

[Joe-Dirt]

I’ve always like this picture of what confederate enlisted men must have looked like in the letter years of the war

I think these guys are from the western theater, Missouri or Arkansas