Recent Find Once in a lifetime find

Ethan S.

First Sergeant
Joined
Aug 19, 2019
Location
Carter County Kentucky
I made this find last year, at an organised relic hunt in Virginia, DIV XL. Virginia, my home state, is the most beautiful place on earth in late March, and last year was no exception. I had never gone relic hunting before, I had no experience, but I was excited. So excited in fact, that I neither ate, nor slept for two days before the event - much to the worriment of my former EMT dad.

The first day didn't go "well". I only dug two bullets, but I was floating on air when I found them. They were in the camp of the 77th New York, when they were camped along the Rappahannock in October, 1863.

The second day didn't start out much better. I walked a good two miles before I found a promising spot at around lunch time, at the site of an old house. There, I dug a large "dandy" flat button. I was really excited by this, so I ran the two miles back to find my dad and the others in our group.

About two hours later, we were at the spot, swinging away. My dad found a thimble, Ed found a New York state seal coat button, and Don...poor Don.

I finally got a signal that sounded better than "hot rock" which is what I was getting all day. It was in the foundation of the house, which everyone seemed to ignore, but newbie me didn't think about such things at the time. Out popped a little coin like object. I took it to my dad, and with some squinting, he declared that it was a George Washington inaugural button...at least that's what it's shaped like.


So about an hour later during dinner, my dad looks at the button again. By this time, some dirt had dried and fell off. He squinted some more, than his eyes got huge. He started yelling "CS!! CS!! IT'S CONFEDERATE!!" Every digger within earshot scurried over rocks, trees, other diggers, shovels, you name it, they scurried. None of us had ever seen one like it before, certainly not me.

William Leigh was at the event, and he identified the button as a super rare "local" Confederate staff officers button, listed as CS17 in Warren K. Tice's button book. He only knows of about 30 or so having ever been dug, and some were not in very good condition.


To this day, I've never cleaned it. I am super proud of it, it being my first Confederate find, and my rarest. Folks say I will NEVER top it, and I believe they're right.


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It has been noted that J.E.B Stuarts Cavalry crossed a ford located directly in front of this house in 1862. Perhaps he and a few fellow staff officers paid a visit to the house, and one of his officers left one of his buttons for me to find...
 
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