Hello all,
Reading this thread and a thought or two about your search for the location of the Battle of Medina came to mind that I wanted to share.
First off, and I know this is trivial, but if you are going to deal with "archies" you need to appear to be educated as they think we are all ignorant.... THE WORD IS.... SITE..... NOT "SIGHT". You are looking for the Medina Battle SITE.
Secondly, and of possibly much more importance to your search, I think, is that I have learned quite a bit about finding "lost battle" sites in my 30 + years of Civil War artifact hunting. I have found several lost CW battle sites that others were not able to. I found one in Scotland that they have been looking for over one thousand years. It took me all of two hours of research and map work to do it and go right to the correct site (which was nearly 50 miles from where everyone had been looking). In addition, I have personally recovered over 12,000 Civil War bullets from over 150 sites in 22 states. I lived in Texas for 20 years and hunted MANY a battle and camp site from several different wars in that state. All that being said... the point that I would like to offer for your consideration is that IF over 1000 were killed in that battle MANY THOUSANDS of musket balls were fired at the site! In the Civil War there were 10,000 bullets made and issued to the soldiers on both sides for EVERY soldier that was killed or wounded during the entire war. There should be at least 10,000 or more big musket balls waiting to signal the site location to any good metal detector, thick grass or not, at the Medina site unless they all got killed with knives and bayonets.
Use your 10 inch coils and do a "fast walk" pattern over the ground you suspect to be the site. When you find it the musket balls will sound off frequently and you will find dozens or even hundreds on your first hunt on the actual site. Even in an ambush situation I GUARANTEE that only a fraction of the killed fell with the first volley. There would have been volley after volley of bullets necessary to put down over 1000 troops who were themselves going to be firing back and seeking whatever cover they could find.
Most of the men would have been carrying at least 30 to 40 musket balls so you should also find a great deal of "drops" that show no damage at all because they were lost in the heat of battle and never used.
Another tip... when you start to get near the main battle site you will tend to find musket balls on the edges of the conflict that are pretty much intact with many of them showing only minimal dis-shaping or impact marks. There are the "spent" balls that traveled the farthest losing their power as they went. Thus when they hit the ground little damage was done to the shape of the ball. THE CLOSER YOU GET TO THE CENTER OF THE ACTIONS THE MORE DAMAGE THE MUSKET BALLS FOUND WILL SHOW as their impact was strong enough to completely alter their shape in many cases.
You can read just about the entire history of a battle in the way, the location and condition that the fired bullets occupy the site itself.
Best wishes to all who continue the search for Medina in the future... SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND!
Oh... one more thing... BEWARE the National Park Service.... I was part of a group that tried to work with them, the State Of Texas and the San Antonio museum to help locate artifacts at the "salvors camp" on Padre Island back in the early 80's. Our group of eighteen had great success locating over 20 good artifacts in just under two hours. The Texas Antiquities Commission Archaelologist, J. Barto Arnold and the San Antonio Museum "archie", Dr. Herman Smith were elated with our work. The NPS treated us like crap and at that point ended the project and made us all leave the site though we had done absolutely NOTHING wrong... only what we had been asked to do. We later learned that they were "afraid" we might steal something. THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO KEEP THEIR AGREEMENTS!!!
AnOldPro
Another Shot!!!
