Civil War Uniform found in barn

danjsargent

Full Member
Jan 1, 2016
205
501
western MA
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
So not a detecting find but still great. My father in law discovered this in their 1800s farm house barn. I took a pic of one of the dozen buttons (all the same) on the coat that are pristine. Gorgeous! Also discovered the star pin in a little pocket on the coat. Perfect condition again!
The button reads "Mass Militia Volunteer". So cool! ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1459436360.619651.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1459436377.154098.jpg
 

Upvote 34
Pictures of the entire jacket will enable folks to ID it pretty quickly as to the age, pre-war, post-war, etc. As mentioned earlier, keep it out of the light and try not to handle it, especially with bare hands - you want to keep the oils off. For temporary storage you might want to place a clean cotton sheet on a big piece of cardboard or plywood, lay the jacket flat/gently on top of it and place another sheet on top of the coat and slide it under a bed and close the door to that room. Whatever you do try to keep it in the bundle as found or if found hanging lay it flat. Do not try to press it flat or loosen clumpy parts of the coat where it might be bunched up or is sticking together. You might also want to contact local museums or the National Park Service Harpers Ferry offices for some stabilization ideas.

Thanks for the great advice!!!
 

Assuming this isn't an early April Fools joke, the first thing would be to keep it out of direct sunlight for any extended period of time. Great find if it's real!

No April fools for sure!
 

That is incredible! I hope you are searching every nook and cranny of that barn! Just so happens that I recently found a Mass Volunteer Militia button near my home here in Virginia. It has been a head scratcher because there are no recorded CW battles in the immediate area.

Yes I continue to go through that house and barn. Thankfully it is generations of hoarders so they kept EVERYTHING. Makes for a big mess but fun for me!
 

To Dan - Found the buttons in Norwell MA. The more I think about that uniform the more amazing it is.
 

That's crazy. What a find. If something like that was still in that barn, there ought to be some great old bottles in there too.
 

That's crazy. What a find. If something like that was still in that barn, there ought to be some great old bottles in there too.

yeap, detect the floor as well.
 

Outstanding ! I would be looking thru that entire barn one board at a time.
 

That's crazy. What a find. If something like that was still in that barn, there ought to be some great old bottles in there too.

There are lots of great bottles! Way too many for me to go through. Lots of local companies (now long gone) especially medicine bottles.
 

Looking forward to seeing the whole coat. Excellent find :thumbsup:
 

How in the world did I miss this?? I've found a very few of those buttons in Central Virginia. This SHOULD be a banner. Why in the world NOT?! Good grief. A dream come true . . .
 

Just goes to show how shockingly recent that war was in the grand scheme of things... to still be able to find well preserved relics from it even nowadays. T-net members are always digging up more proof that the Civil War is still quite recent history. Not too long ago a few of our members dug up some perfectly preserved pig skin cartridges still containing their powder. I can attest as well as it has been hardly a year sine I found a sword from that horrible war still with its organic ray skin grips intact and everything. Crazy to think how much has changed in such a relatively short amount of time since back then - also amazing at how much has stayed pretty much the same. Amazing find, hope you can preserve it nice and of course find more neat relics in the future too. :)
 

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