Army of the Potomac

Last week I was able to visit a old stomping ground near Fredricksburg Va. since I was attending a Marine Corps conference up in Quantico. About ten years ago I was able to get a few three ringers and some lead slag in this tiny valley between two hillocks in the woods off of Interstate 95. I always wondered over the years if there was anything left as I did not do the area justice with my old Tesoro detector.

Army of the Potomac Company "B" cap badge

Nowadays with armed with a Minelab Excalibur I jumped into the woods from a newly laid parking lot and searched for the area I knew "they" were at from my hunt ten years prior. I walked along the ridgeline of a meandering hilltop which may have been a footpath long ago, and stumbled upon some old hand formed bricks haphazardly strewn about under the leaves in places on a flat plateau.

With mosquitoes buzzing and ticks crawling I did manage to find a very old piece of silver spoon and a flat button also some old iron kettle pieces but nothing definitive. I was getting a bit tired as the Minelab is no lightweight machine and it was getting late in the afternoon so the woods were darking up a bit. I decided to head back straight over some ridgelines and toward the sounds of traffic.

I soon descended into a small valley and pondered that this may be the spot from before, so I slowed down and started to scan the center wherein the past runoff from rains carved a small depression. It was nice to hear the detector sound off after a long silence and lead slag was soon in hand, then a foot away the first bullet sounded off. I knew this was the spot, and started to work every inch slowly, as the time before I just ran thru and never had the opportunity to go back like I planned.

Supply tin and lead bullet

As I flipped over the divot with my boot and saw the companybadge lying in the dirt, I knew the relic hunting gods were treating me with a favor! The week before I lost a WW2 lapel pin I just purchased at a military show for 50 clams and I guess this was a payback from the Gods for being such a swell guy! What I really need to I.D. are these pieces of some sort of tin. Some ofthe pieces have a copper threaded stud soldered onto the top. It was found within a few feet of the cap badge and some minne balls. Anyone have aclue on what was inside 147 years ago?