What is the most interesting Civil War relic you have ever dug, and where did you find it?

I can only contribute a couple of stories. I grew up on farmland that was being developed into a post WWII suburban neighborhood. This land was on top of the Missouri River bluffs barely within the city limits of Boonville, Missouri. The land had been occupied since pre-historic times. We also knew that an earthen Civil War Home Guard fort had been built somewhere in the neighborhood, but we weren't really sure exactly where until just last year. I never specifically dug for CW relics, but every time a street was extended or a home basement was excavated, a wealth of old items would turn up in the exposed dirt. Most of my finds were stone tools and projectile points from the native Americans who had once lived there. I have a very nice fluted point about six inches long from a basement excavation--a real prize. It seems like we were always turning up horseshoes and bits of metal. It's impossible to know how many of these were left over from farming and how many were due to the presence of soldiers. I also have a very good minnie ball, but I vaguely recall that it was rolling around in a box of tools I bought at a yard sale. My father could never find the old family cemetery that was mentioned in the abstract to the property. Last year I discovered why: It was marked on a soldier map of the fort, which survived in that soldier's diary--which a few of us got to scan and examine a year ago. Also marked on the map was an Indian burial mound. Sadly, the family cemetery was disturbed by the soldiers building the fort. Later, it was completely lost. Still later, around the 1920s, that area and the burial mound were dozed away for the construction of a hospital, which has also been dozed away now. Between streets, houses, and the old hospital property, there is very little undisturbed ground out there these days. Fellow members Booner, Boonslick and I have been there recently. It has been private property for a long time. The great thing for me was that my extended family used to own a lot of it. Not any longer.
 
As far as dug relics, well back in the mid 70s my uncle who was on the sonar development team for the sub fleet, made a metal detector for me. Well we had to test it out, so off we went to Gettysburg. We were detecting along Hancock Ave, between Cushing's battery and the PA monument for about 40 minutes, finding something almost each foot we traversed. I was wearing fatigues with multiple pockets and almost all were filled with bullets, shell fragments, bayonet pieces and a couple of snaffle bits. Suddenly we heard a shout and a "husky" ranger came running from the area of the Main Maintenance building. He could tell that we had no clue about the regulations and as I was 9 y/o, he asked for what we had in our hands (couple of minie balls and watering bit) and told us that our detector, car and freedom could have been forfeit.

He said that it was obvious we were not trying to hide what we were doing and were ignorant of the rules, directed us to the house of an area digger to get advice on where to hunt legally and let us go on our way.

I had a jar full of Pickett's Charge artifacts for many years, until I went off to college and mom threw it away.........

Uggh! That is heartbreaking!
 
This past spring I found two or three cannonball fragments about the size of my palm, some musket balls, and a few minie balls. But the coolest thing I found was a single grapeshot ball. I can't wait till it's cool again so I can go back to metal detecting. This was at the site of the Battle of Fort Bisland. I'll go back there, but I now also have permission to dig in the yard of a plantation home where Banks' army encamped and a Confederate training/POW camp. All this is on private property.
 
Oh, incidentally, a couple months ago the man who owns the Ft. Bisland battlefield told me he was driving down the road near his property and spotted some little kids kicking around an object like a small soccer ball. He suspected he knew what is actually was, stopped, and bought the thing from them for peanuts: those kids had found a cannon ball from the Battle of Ft. Bisland, just sitting there in their yard, and were kicking it around for fun!
 
Years ago while visiting my sister in Fairfax, VA, I drove over to where the battle of Blackburn's Ford, VA had been fought in July of 1861. This battle was where my G-G-Grandfather and his 3 brothers fought their first skirmish of the war with Company "I" of the 3rd Michigan Infantry. The whole area around Blackburn's Ford is pretty well developed now, and it was hard to grasp what the land actually looked like during the war. Frustrated, I was parked along the highway reading my map when I looked up and realized a large road grader had just rumbled past (about 30 feet from where I was parked), scraping away the topsoil for the parking lot area of a new Holiday Inn under construction. I stepped out of the car and began wandering along behind the grader and within just a few minutes I picked up a couple of 3-ringers and a nice U S cartridge box plate. Eventually the job foreman walked over and politely told me for safety reasons I'd have to leave the construction site, but I suspect I could have found a lot more relics given the opportunity to follow that grader for a while!

You are right, @FiremarshalBill, about the Blackburn's Ford area yielding Civil War relics. Here's an old story (1994) that was news to me, as I just saw it was very recently shared on Facebook. There, a relic-hunter describes finding a Union soldier's grave. His discovery was followed by an archaeological dig that discovered the bodies of six soldiers of the 1st Massachusetts, who were later identified and given a proper funeral.

The Facebook post is here: http://bit.ly/2ENPo06
 
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