Civil War Entrenchment Question

[guitarplaya39]

I'm still very new to metal detecting and relic hunting and had a couple questions about hunting Civil War trench sites.
I'm sure these are very generic or "it depends" questions, but I'd like to see where folks here usually have luck.

Are more relics usually found in the trenches themselves, or in the surrounding areas?
I recently had the chance to hunt a small section which I believe are relatively untouched, but only searched the trench and came up empty handed. I guess something else to consider is, according to the maps and research I've done, this particular section of entrenchments didn't see any battle action.

How deep are the relics usually buried?
The places where I have access are covered in very thick layers of leaves. I usually lightly rake the coil through the top layer of dry leaves, but the thick mat of wet leaves below is a real nuisance.

Thanks for the advice!

 

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[relic nut]

You may think they have never been hunted, but more than likely they have, and many times.
The few on private land that I have hunted have not produced much. I did get lucky and found a Cannon ball once and it was 18+ inches and I was digging every single I would get.
Try to hunt all the flat spots behind and around the breast works. Any spots where solider may have gathered.
Maybe you could dig deep in the trench and shift it.

 

[smokeythecat]

If something is in a trench, it may be 3 feet or more underground due to erosion filling in the trench over time, and most have been detected, some seriously dug out. I would try flat areas around it and any slopes away from it subject to erosion taking material off the top of the trench.

 

[guitarplaya39]

Thanks for the input! Makes sense to me. Now for the challenge of finding camps that haven't been built over lol

 

[RTR]

The very secluded remains of this structure might be civil war related.I'm hitting it w/MD w/in the next week. Depending on weather .

 

[devldog]

A lot of times reserve troops were brought up and were placed in behind entrenchments. Look at widespread areas and flat areas as mentioned before. Think as the troops thought, "would this be an area suitable for camping?" also figure if the entrenchments were being pounded by artillery, figure on overshot shells landing in behind the breast works. Best of Luck to you.