8-4-10 I spent a lot of time years ago in Matt Longwith's neighborhood. Heck, I was probably detecting full time down there, when he was still "shooting BB Guns" and thought Girls were "Yucky!" But, the last few years Matt has proved a dedicated detectorist. Despite the full pouches of relics we carried off 25 years ago, he still manages to locate some excellent military items ! I first thought his digging luck was a lot like mine nowadays. I go out and spend several hours, and when lucky, recover a few items. So does Matt. I'm always happy with what I get. So is Matt. The BIG difference is that I come home with a few musket balls, and if lucky a flat button or Eagle GS. Matt, on the other hand comes home with Delvigne bullets, Cosmopolitan type II bullets, US Greatcoat buttons, Confederate Spurs, and a whole disgusting list of goodies. In keeping with that policy, Matt recently spent a day out in the heat and humidity, and sent these pictures. Said he found some iron, a few pieces of lead, and then this doo-dad. GOOD GRIEF ! What a Beautiful 1st US Dragoons Bit Boss, or Rosette !! Virtually undamaged, this could have been lost 25 years before the war, or come from a Confederate occupied site ! Either way, it's a very Rare, Early piece that ANY of us would be proud to recover ! Congratulations Again Matt !
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| Matt Longwith's Beautiful 1st US Dragoons Bit Boss ! |
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| Matt Longwith's Beautiful 1st US Dragoons Bit Boss ! |
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4-26-10 Finally, Just to prove that old adage that " Even a blind
Hog finds an acorn every now and then" here are a couple of
non-bullet items Yours Truly managed to recover in the last month !
First one that came out of a little Yankee Camp in Missouri, I was
just sure was a silver half dime. But, Nooooo, it proved to be a
foreign coin, an 1856 Silver 10-Cents from the Netherlands ??
Must have been lost by some of those Dutch down this way
with Sigel ! Ohh, and their idea of ten cents does only match about
half that, or half dime in US, or at least did back then. Still didn't
throw it back though.
Just recently, near a Pre-Civil War Mill Site, while searching
for a camp, jumped out of the truck before it stopped rolling and dug
a VERY, very, poker chipped Confederate Lined -C- Cavalry button.
I bet some of you old diggers know the moral of this story though.
Yep, it was just about the only dang relic in the field ! Spent the rest
of the day recovering a couple small caliber balls, and that was it !
Oh Well, despite the button being candidate for the "World's
roughest" did not throw it back either ! Only makes the fifth
Confederate Government Issue button I've dug in Arkansas.
SB
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| 1856 Netherlands Silver 10-Cent Piece, From Union Campsite. |
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| Reverse of 1856 Netherlands Silver 10-Cent Piece, from Union Campsite. |
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| Confederate Lined -C- Poker Chip, recovered by Digginfool 4-13-10. |
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| Reverse of Confederate Lined -C- Poker Chip. |
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4-26-10 Mr. Chris Whitehead came over recently to show me the finest
relic he's uncovered of late. Man, what a nice button too ! It's a 2-piece,
coat size, with a Mexican War looking eagle on a lined field, and eagle
has the letter -H- , in the shield on his chest. A generous portion of
gold gilt remains to highlite the entire device, and it looks great.
Reverse shows an Rmdc "Wadhams, Webster, & Co." maker's mark,
which according to Bazelon & McGuinn dates ca. 1838-1846. Now,
Chris won't even tell ME, just exactly where it was located, but I do
know it was here in Benton County, Arkansas, at a site known to have
been visited by the "Benton Hussars". And this makes the 2nd of
these located in a "Benton Hussar" site here in Benton County. OK,
I know it's an Unknown in the books, but we've got a good suspicion
what the -H- stands for !?!? Hmmm..... More about that in the
future. Congrats Chris !! SB
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| Beautiful Eagle -H- Button Excavated in Benton County, Arkansas, by Chris Whitehead. |
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| Reverse of Chris's Eagle -H- Button, showing ca. 1838-1846 maker's mark of Wadhams, Webster, & Co. |
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1-31-10 Wendell Evans, {That sneaky %#@*! Son Of a ...... Gun } of
Rogers, Arkansas, recently snuck out without any of his digging buddies,
and had some luck ! . . lol . . Detecting an ancient cabin site, not far from
what looks like a Civil War Period road, he came away with a pair of nice
buttons. One was a 1-piece flower button, still retaining a large amount
of gilt, and it's shank. The other turned out to be a ca. 1830s 1-piece New
York Militia Button, also retaining it's shank, and with a cool backmark
of "Imperial Standard Superb." Really, Wendell that sneaking out
like that, is not good for your health ! Congratulations though !!
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| Wendell Evan's Pair of Nice, Early Buttons |
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| Reverse of Wendell Evan's Pair of super early buttons. |
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| 1-31-10 Gordon McCain of Fayetteville, Arkansas, reports that he
recently/finally hit good sign in his quest for a small Confederate
Cavalry Camp. First signs were mostly small caliber round balls,
some miscellaneous brass, and a few 3-Ringers. Among the three
ringers though was this one, that is quite different. A .54 caliber
example, if it's a Georgia Teat-Base, it's got the biggest teat I ever
saw ! Whatever it is, I'll take a dozen of em" ! Congratulations
Gordon !
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| Gordon McCain's unusual very high teat-base .54 bullet . |
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| Cavity of Gordon McCain's extremely high teat, teat base bullet. |
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| 1-31-10 Matt Longwith, of Cane Hill, Arkansas, was going thru his
recently recovered bullet box not too long ago, and pulled out this
little beauty ! It's one of those primarily Arkansas recovered examples,
that Meigs Brainard first mentioned in his North/South Trader article
entitled, War In The West Yields Rare Bullets. [July/August, 1987,
p. 19] Tom Stelma recently covered a couple of examples in his
book, Some Civil War Bullets, also. [ p. 251] It's an approximately
.577 caliber 4-ringer bullet, with a variant plug base cavity !! Dang,
let me repeat myself, I'll take a dozen of those !! Congratulations
Matt !!
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| Matt Longwith's dropped Arkansas 4-Ringer Bullet |
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| Plug Base Cavity of Matt Longwith's Arkansas 4-Ringer Bullet |
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| Click The Sixty-Nine Gardner To Go To Just Out Of The Ground Page 9 |
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