Confederate Gardner? Silver War nickle! Folded quarter and other things at our spot..

[MrMarsHill]

Hey guys finally got back out to our civil war spot today... havent been in 2 months maybe? A long time for me, lol. I've missed it. This is the place we have found MOST of the civil war items I have ever posted including the star base minie, the 2 different sizes of enfield bullets in one hole. Other 3 ringers, the union infantry button along with flat buttons. It was a notorious bushwacking area. Weve found evidence of multiple obvious ambushes. I've told the story many times. Either way, it's near a modern camp site and close to a trail head today. We have to hike away to get to the good stuff, but not too far. First good signal today was ringing up as a nickle on my garret ace 300(40s I think?)Just below a can tab and just above foil, right on the nickle spot and steady. I've seen buttons in this range so I dug it. It was the 1945 "P" SILVER "War" nickle. Great score. Next find was my parents, I dont have pics of their finds yet but will add them tomorrow. They found a 3 ring minie, nice and dropped. Then they found a fired 3 ring minie and the 2 ring gardner type bullet all in about a 10 foot circle. Behind a pile of rocks as we have come to find is the norm on this road. If it looks like it could provide cover out here... we are proving most places out here did provide cover during the civil war, lol. We find dropped bullets right in the same areas as fired bullets so I imagine these guys are getting shot at, and dropping bullets and buttons in the panic/escape after they pull ambushes from behind cover near the main roads. Just seems reasonable in the guerrilla type warfare that was normal in my area during the civil war. I used my digital micrometer to get the measurement and I would call this .540 cal or so. It's not PERFECTLY round, so I wasnt able to tell exactly, but it was definitely. 54 cal at the widest spot(the base of the bullet) you can see the measurement from above the "rings" is thinner. 532" or something. The cavity is deep and looks to be flat inside. I own a 58 cal gardner I got from my buddy that was made at the Richmond arsenal(supposedly) and it has a tiny dimple in the base. This gardner type bullet has no dimple I can see. I'll get pics of my parent's 3 ringer and their Gardner type bullet too when they send them. All this comes together to tell a pretty cool little story of our spot during the war. We are up to 4 different calibers and 7 different types of bullets from this one site. Not to mention the buttons etc. I think weve just found a few relics on the outskirts of something bigger though. We will be back, but I'm not sure when. It's too far out to safely go alone and I dont have anybody to go with besides my parents, lol. I have a vehicle with 4wd of my own, but need somebody in case I snap a leg etc lol. No cell service and about 2-3 miles into deep back country woods on an old 1800s wagon road, lol. Hope you guys enjoy my finds! Maybe you can tell me something more about the gardner type bullet I got? Could this have been fired out of a .577 enfield or .58 Springfield rifle? I KNOW this bullet is dropped, but I mean in practice, could this 54 cal bullet have been used effectively in a 58 cal smooth bore? Obviously it could be fired, but would they have done it? Does this place a smaller rifle at the scene? All our other bullets have been .57, .58 or .69 cal. Any info or replies are much appreciated as always. You guys rock!
Jim Brown
Bonez Customs and Collectables
@bonezcustoms on IG

 

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[MrMarsHill]

I forgot to mention the Gardner type bullet is also obviously nose cast. Or looks that way to me. Is this of any significance? Very good looking bullet lol. Thanks everybody

 

[ToddsPoint]

What is the coin that is folded. I can't quite figure out what it is. That's a pretty good trick...folding a coin in fourths. I wonder how they did it. Gary

 

[Steve in PA]

Yes sir, that's a CS Gardner and a nice dropped example at that

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

MrMarsHill wrote:
> Maybe you can tell me something more about the gardner type bullet I got? Could this have been fired out of a .577 enfield or .58 Springfield rifle? I KNOW this bullet is dropped, but I mean in practice, could this 54 cal bullet have been used effectively in a 58 cal smooth bore? Obviously it could be fired, but would they have done it? Does this place a smaller rifle at the scene? All our other bullets have been .57, .58 or .69 cal.

Your Confederate minie-bullet is definitely a .54-caliber Gardner, and it is definitely an unfired one. It most likely was intended for use in a .54 rifle which the Confederacy imported many thousands of, early in the war, from Austria. (Known as a ".54 Austrian rifle.") The majority of those rifles got issued to CS troops in states other than Virginia... so it makes sense that a minie-bullet for the .54 Austrian would turn up in North Carolina.

Also:
Yes, your Gardner minie was nose-cast. Afterward coming out of the bulletmold, it was placed in a (Confederate-patented) Gardner bullet machine, which applied a paper powder cartridge onto its base.

 

[MrMarsHill]

Just received the pics of the other finds from my parents now. Here they are! I have no measurements on these yet. I'll be sure to get them for my notes though. All the bullets posted here were in a 10 foot circle behind a large pile of rocks in our skirmish (or whatever happened here) site. The 2 Gardners are almost identical when I held them together yesterday. The 3 ringer is kind of different looking, but maybe I'm just tripping. Then the fired high impact bullet was found amongst the dropped bullets. We cant tell if it's a 3 ring or 2 ring, but it appeared to be 3 rings when I held the bullet yesterday. We are definitely gathering a story of something that happened deep in the woods here in the civil war. I cant wait until we hit the main vein for relics... I know there is a jackpot out here somewhere! Thanks for all the info guys. Very Informative and interesting about that .54 cal @TheCannonballGuy !

 

[MrMarsHill]

My dad sent me this pic this morning. Shows very well what @The CannonballGuy was referring too. I understood, but now I completely understand. Very cool design and history behind this!

 

[Lanny in AB]

Cool finds!

Nicely done, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[diggerranger]

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