Relic hunting in Virginia is truly an incredible experience. In this set of photos are one of many hut or fire pits left by soldiers who faught and camped at Brandy Station.
Above is a pic of me after digging out the fire place/trash pit. Here I am holding the top portion, one of three, broken, catherdral bottles. I was able to salvage one complete one however and most of a crockware style bowl. I also found a complete ration tin and 3/4 of a wiskey bottle. Other than that most everything was broken. While carefully removing layers of soil and ash it became evident why much of the bottles in this pit were broken. Many were found under or next to the large rocks that were no doubt used to line the fire pit.
Above pic shows the the thick layer of ash from a fire lying roughly 2 feet below the surface of the soil.
Below is the one single cathedral bottle that I could salvage in tact from the fire pit. The yellow crockware plate just barely visible below the bottle was eventually recovered but not all the pieces were found. I kept what I could find and hope to rebuild what I have.
To be continued…….
Too bad so much was broken, but at least you got the one intact bottle. Is there an inexpensive metal detector that you’d recommend? I’ve been meaning to detect on my property for some time. Supposedly Mosby may have camped nearby.
Inexpensive? Yes there are but you get what you pay for. My most minimally priced detector was close to $600.00. It really depends o what you want to use the detector for and where and what you plan to hunt. Dry sandy beaches you can get away with a low end detector but in the wet sand it will not perform as well if at all. Whites Electronics has a nice reliable variety of detectors to choose from. You should contact Centreville Electronics and inquire about their line of Whites Detectors and they do rent them as well. Good luck and let me know what you decide to do.
Will do, thanks for the advice!