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Amazing Civil War Relic Found 10 Inches Deep,
In Another Man's Hole!

I don't think I would have believed this story had I not dug this find up myself and written about it! I recently went to the latest field, the one where multiple detectors hunt everyday. After searching the lower grass area for awhile and finding nothing of note, I moved toward the far right corner where I had found two good bullets the other day. I found the knapsack J hook in the above photo on Friday.

I got a good signal on one of the banks leading towards the railroad track and found another nice confederate gardner bullet about 6 inches down. But I had no idea what I was about to find.

I made my way up to the very corner of the field and found out that someone had already dug a hole there. This was an almost perfectly cylindrical hole about 6 inches across and about 9 inches deep. Now, about half the time when I'm out there and I come across a hole, filled in or not, I run my coil over it to see if the previous digger missed something. I did this with this hole and got a very loud tone that sounded like a surface soda can. "Wow," I said. What the heck is that and why didn't they dig it up?

I thought maybe the digger had found some junk and left it in the bottom of the hole but I felt down to the bottom and felt un dug, packed earth. I then stuck my probe in the hole to see if I could pin point where the object was. The sound was strong over the entire bottom of the hole. I just kept thinking "What in the world is this?"

Taking my shovel, I started to open up the perimeter of the backside of the hole to see if I could get a better approach to what was in there. Digging deep and behind the signal I started to bring up the shovel full of dirt when I saw something come up. I sat there, stunned for a second trying to comprehend what I was looking at as I was looking at the backside.

I plucked the item up and turned it over. What I was staring at was a Union (most likely officer's) sword belt plate. The plate is in great shape with just the backside hook being broken; probably the reason why it was discarded. Someone actually left this in the ground?

The only thing I can gather is that maybe the digger had started digging this hole when it was getting dark, they didn't have a flashlight, and they didn't have a probe. But would anyone actually leave a signal that strong in a civil war relic field that was 10 inches in the ground? I guess so. And I thought finding the 1819 Large Cent around other holes in that field was amazing. All I could keep saying all the way home was "Unbelievable," and "Thank you God."