Michigan Connection to Civil War- Really Want to find relics, but live in MI.

[SaginawIan]

Yes, I am shamelessly looking for someone to help me find some spots to detect I can find vague information about civil war encampments in Michigan. Can anyone help steer me in the right direction to find possible civil war relic sites in Michigan? Anyone have a good source of informaiton they would share? I am on a mission to find a civil war bullet or button in the state of Michigan somewhere.

Any replies or advice or stories much appreciated,

Ian

 

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[Pimp Lenin]

I reckon your best bet will be training camps. I would first research the history of some of the Michigan units and find out what towns and/or counties they were formed in and where they may have trained at. Then contact said town/county hisorical society, and they may have more information on where the camp was located, and if you can hunt there or not.

 

[SaginawIan]

That's good advice. I will try it. I do know about one place that supposedly used to be a training area. It's a park with a monument that says this is where a group gathered, but I don't think it's in exactly the right location from where the real camp was. I'll bet someone at the historical society knows all about it like you said.

ian

 

[Montana Jim]

I Googled "michigan civil war" and got 6,890,000 hits in 0.17 seconds. Here are the top few... and I know you might have done this already but here's a start if not...

http://users.aol.com/dlharvey/cwmireg.htm

http://www.cwartillery.org/milinks.html

http://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/museum/explore/museums/hismus/prehist/civilwar/introciv.html

I agree that training camps and home garrisons will be your best bet if no fighting occurred there. More crap was lost during training than any other time IMO. And don't hunt on top of monuments... get a half mile away and try those areas where troops maneuvered... some military training reservation were thousands of acres.

 

[SaginawIan]

Montana- I looked through your links and I did find something interesting that I didn't know before. There is a monument near where I live that marks a camp - I knew that part, but since it's on a busy intersection I figured it was all covered by concrete and landscaped over. Well, the history is that they camped there for a while and there was about 1700 men in all. I also know that a quarter mile away from the marker is the river and a small wooded area. There are some large trees near the river that show me that it's really never been landscaped over. I'll bet there were men camping right on the river. Probably most of them did. They probably put the monument at the corner of busy roads so people could see it, but it's probably more likely the men camped along the river, don't you think? I suppose my best bet is to walk the river bank in that area. You think?

Ian

 

[Montana Jim]

... Probably most of them did. They probably put the monument at the corner of busy roads so people could see it, but it's probably more likely the men camped along the river, don't you think? I suppose my best bet is to walk the river bank in that area. You think?

Ian

Yes... absolutely... the monument is either right on top of the actual battle place or when not, near a highway or road so people can stop and read a sign or something.

In Montana some signs read something like: "One mile north of here an Indian raiding party killed 5 pioneers and burned a wagon train" . When you look around there is nothing but farms, so the research continues. I hunt a fort area that was many many thousands of acres, not just the little garrisoned area. Move away from the signs and monuments onto private property and see whats out there.

Research is your only friend here. And the generous permission of land owners!

 

[Pimp Lenin]

Just to echo a couple of things said above...

Indeed some of the training camps would have consisted of hundreds or thousands of acres. Also, most training camps would have had a river nearby for a water source.

Camp Moore in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana was the primary training camp for Confederate soldiers in Louisiana. It was one of (if not the) largest training camps for the Confederacy. It consisted of a couple of thousand acres, but only a very small portion of that is state park land; the rest can be hunted with permission. It is also near the junction of two small creeks, which was the primary reason is was constructed where it was.

Research, research, research! Finding the information is a treasure hunt in itself!