Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Comments

24 comments

Date Votes
  • JamesRK
    I don't know if those are legitimate or not, but I wouldn't think they would have much value anyway. My brother must have a thousand Civil War bullets. He just picked them up on various battlegrounds, mostly in Mississippi.
    0
  • zipperzap
    Yep - probably are - there are millions of them out there yet to be
    dug - I've got a long time friend from Gettysburg who still sees
    them being found all the time 144 years later.
    0
  • glabray
    Looks to me like the typical lead oxide found on old bullets.
    0
  • Fatstrat
    They look legit to me. I've got bullets & relics from several Civil War battle sites.
    Most almost look like stone. But different types of soil have different effects on relic appearence.
    Do you know why the seller states that he acquired the bullets on private land? It's a Federal offense to even pick up a relic found in plain sight in a National Battlefield Park.
    0
  • Zebra
    They look legit
    0
  • GuvamintCheese
    Id bet they are legit. There are Many of them on battle fields. fortunatly cant dig them anymore on most battle fields. I Was at Antitem recently and they have many of them in their collection. Of course 20,000+ died in just one day there. Thats alot of muzzle loading.
    0
  • dcinffxva
    They look legit to me as well. I still find them when I'm out and about in Virginia. Here are a couple of my more recent ones.

    IMG_0956.jpg
    0
  • Ford 23
    Probably North Georgia clay. Dug a lot of them covered with the red clay, really sticky stuff
    0
  • staind460
    don't be so sure!!!!!!

    take a hand full of mini balls, fire them into a dirt mound, excavate them and toss them in a pile of horse pooo!
    wait a couple months and they will come out looking like "civil war relics" this technique was actually told to me by a relics dealer
    0
  • allen griggs
    "I Was at Antitem recently and they have many of them in their collection. Of course 20,000+ died in just one day there. Thats alot of muzzle loading."

    More Americans died at Antietam than on any other day.
    But, not quite that many.
    There were 20,000 some casualties.
    Of these there were 3,000+ dead.

    While 9/11 was happening I was sure it would surpass Antietam for the number of American deaths in one day. But, it fell a little short.
    0
  • Spider7115
    I can't comprehend someone going to the trouble of faking them for a mere $3.99 for five of them.
    0
  • rustyh
    Does not seem to be a lot of activity on his other auction items of similar description. If you want them they are worth it. If you want to say they are real ... well ... its all in how you tell it.
    0
  • GuvamintCheese
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    "I Was at Antitem recently and they have many of them in their collection. Of course 20,000+ died in just one day there. Thats alot of muzzle loading."

    More Americans died at Antietam than on any other day.
    But, not quite that many.
    There were 20,000 some casualties.
    Of these there were 3,000+ dead.

    While 9/11 was happening I was sure it would surpass Antietam for the number of American deaths in one day. But, it fell a little short.
    I guess I should have paid better attention.[:o)]
    0
  • Fatstrat
    Don't forget that Civil War battle weren't fought within boundries like a football game. They are still digging relics on private lands near these famous battlefields.
    I've read accounts of people in battle area's picking up bucket fulls of bullets from their FRONT YARDS after these battles (Battle of Franklin Tn.). There is one farm that borders the Antietam Battlefield, that was actually a part of the battlefield at the time, that is still owned by the family that owned it at the time. (I believe the infamous Corn field was theirs). They are still finding relics on that property and have probably made millions selling them.
    Last time I was in Gettysburg, I bought artillery shell frags that were unearthed during a constuction projects several miles outside the Park boundries. The majority of relics sold today were either collected years ago before the battlefields were made National Parks, or collected on private lands bordering the parks or at smaller/lessor known sites. We've found some in nearly forgotten battle (SKirmish) sites in SW Missouri and NE Okla.
    Retreat routes from battle sites are some of the most fertile grounds for finding relics as well.
    0
  • allen griggs
    I used to live in central Georgia. My buddy Steve asked me if I knew that there had been a Civil War battle near Gray, Georgia, which was his home town.
    I told him that I had never heard of it.
    He said it was called the battle of Griswoldville, and that 800 rebs were killed. It happened during Sherman's March to the Sea.
    Well, I went to the library and got to looking at some old maps. The roads that were in use during the Civil War were still in use today.
    I found where the battle had been, and I read that indeed, 800 rebels were killed. In fact one obscure Georgia author had written a book about the battle, subtitled "The Gettysburg of Georgia."
    I think that was a little hyperbole. The Rebels got a pathetic home guard, which was a bunch of geezers, and kids from a military academy in Macon, and they charged the Union works and they were mowed down.

    Anyway, there were no historical markers on the roadside, nothing to indicate the location of this battle.
    Steve and I spent $300 to buy a metal detector. We got our shovels and went over there, we figured we would need five gallon buckets to haul away the stuff. The Union trenches were still there.
    We saw, every five feet in every direction, a little hole and a little pile of dirt. Hundreds of holes.
    Some &%$$*&$ had beaten us to the punch by no more than 2 days, because it had rained 3 days earlier. That guy had stripped that little battlefield clean! In an hour we didn't get a beep, except for a few nails which the other guy had already dug up. Oh, well.
    0
  • GuvamintCheese
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    I used to live in central Georgia. My buddy Steve asked me if I knew that there had been a Civil War battle near Gray, Georgia, which was his home town.
    I told him that I had never heard of it.
    He said it was called the battle of Griswoldville, and that 800 rebs were killed. It happened during Sherman's March to the Sea.
    Well, I went to the library and got to looking at some old maps. The roads that were in use during the Civil War were still in use today.
    I found where the battle had been, and I read that indeed, 800 rebels were killed. In fact one obscure Georgia author had written a book about the battle, subtitled "The Gettysburg of Georgia."
    I think that was a little hyperbole. The Rebels got a pathetic home guard, which was a bunch of geezers, and kids from a military academy in Macon, and they charged the Union works and they were mowed down.

    Anyway, there were no historical markers on the roadside, nothing to indicate the location of this battle.
    Steve and I spent $300 to buy a metal detector. We got our shovels and went over there, we figured we would need five gallon buckets to haul away the stuff. The Union trenches were still there.
    We saw, every five feet in every direction, a little hole and a little pile of dirt. Hundreds of holes.
    Some &%$$*&$ had beaten us to the punch by no more than 2 days, because it had rained 3 days earlier. That guy had stripped that little battlefield clean! In an hour we didn't get a beep, except for a few nails which the other guy had already dug up. Oh, well.
    That is something.
    0
  • Fatstrat
    Believe me, you aren't the 1st to research and locate these nearly forgotten sites.
    When my FIL was alive, he and my wife were very active in a metal detecting club. The organizers of which spent much time reseaching these types of places to organize "club hunts". We went to forgotten battle sites, Military frontier fort sites, and "ghost towns" that are usually at present some farmers pasture w/no hint that anything other than cattle grazing ever occured there.
    During these hunts, only a handfull would find anything worth keeping. One or two would sometimes find something significant (gun/sword parts,medals etc). But most of the finds were bullets, buttons, forks & spoons, horse tack type stuff.
    This kind of thing, both on individual and organized level has been going FOR YEARS. To the point that many places are nearly if not completely hunted clean.
    If you want find something, these days you will likely have to work hard for it. It terms of research, gaining permission to hunt private property, and of course getting to the often remote site and actually doing the search.
    Recently they caught some guys digging on remote area's of the Pea Ridge Battle site in NW Ark. These guys reportedly found some GOOD stuff. And were caught when they tried to sell it. Ranger had noted the holes and "put the word out" to area collectors to be on the lookout.
    0
  • allen griggs
    Steve and I messed with that metal detector four or five times, two or three hours per time, plus driving time, what a waste of time and money!
    I found only one artifact. This was where a country road crossed the Oconee River there in central Georgia.
    There was a historical marker there, that said that Yankee calvary had been on the west bank of the river, and had a battle with Rebels on the east bank of the river on Nov. 23 1864. The marker said that the Yankee calvary were from Alabama [!], I never did figure that out.
    They said the battle was 1/4 mile north of the bridge.
    So we went about 400 yards north, throught the woods, on the east side of the river, and there I found a deformed Minie ball.
    Well that was pretty cool, I knew it was fired on Nov 23 1863 by some of Sherman's troops, and it hit something. Who knows, might have hit a Rebel's skull.
    After all that work only one smushed Minie ball, plus hundreds of pop tops and nails.

    This was 20+ years ago and the detector was not good at discriminating between lead, iron, or aluminum, even though it was a pretty expensive detector.
    0
  • dcinffxva
    There are still plenty of areas in Virginia that you can hunt with a metal detector, and turn up some good stuff. A buddy and I were out recently, and came up with 22 bullets, a Union Breast Plate, a sledge-hammer head, and other stuff we couldn't identify.

    For those that don't know what a Breast Plate looks like

    plate.jpg
    0
  • allen griggs
    That breast plate is a beauty! What size is that thing?
    What was the function of a breast plate?
    0
  • dcinffxva
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    That breast plate is a beauty! What size is that thing?
    What was the function of a breast plate?


    About 3" in diameter. They were on the cartridge pouches that were worn across the sholder. Lots of them got taken off and tossed after the soldiers realized that having a bright shiny brass disk in the middle of your chest during a battle was a bad idea.

    uniform.jpguni2.jpg
    0
  • Kimbercolt
    any areas in north florida, I know the battleground going to lakecity.
    But you cant take a medal detector there.
    0
  • dcinffxva
    Kimber,

    The Library of Congress has a section that contains the scans of the original maps used during the war. It shows all of the natural landmarks that would still be the same, and in my area, several of the roads existed then that still exist today. That will give you a pretty good starting point.

    Also try and figure out from the maps how the armies got there, and how they got out. The travel paths are often littered with stuff that was dropped, or discarded intentionally.

    In most areas you will be able to find some undeveloped land along the borders, and entry/exit routes. I just ask the landowner permission to go on his land, and always take any trash that I find out as well. If you hit on a particularly productive area, it doesn't hurt to offer them a few bullets as well.

    About two weeks ago in my area, one of the guys dug up a Confederate 12 lb. shell, and another guy plucked a beautiful 2 1/2 dollar gold piece out of the dirt.
    0
  • Fatstrat
    Be sure to refill any holes you dig if there are livestock in the area. A cow w/a broken leg is a sure way to make a farmer say NO next time.
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity