I will never forget this Find

Boondocks

Junior Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2017
Messages
78
Location
Pensacola, FL
I have to start by saying thank you for the advice I got from y’all the other day, it ended up making a huge difference. I got to hunt a field next to a very old home in Central Alabama yesterday morning. On my way to the field I noticed a fire station and saw one of the guys walking outside. (More about that soon) when I got to the house I started out with my CTX and was kind of ignoring a lot looking for coin signals. I quickly found a good 12-44 back to back and they were both wheat pennies. I kept that in mind as I continued on. There is a small groomed field next to the house and I decided to make a few passes in it and I got a strong 12-30 signal 4” down. I decided to dig it and found a neat piece of metal with 3 small holes and a shamrock cut out. Take a look at the pics. I won’t bore you with the other stuff but I had the mindset that there were neat finds in the field when I got to the edge of the field and got a good 12-42 signal at 7”. I decided to dig it and popped out a good plug. It was even deeper than 7” when I finally picked up something on my pinpointer. It took forever to find a small nail. Ugh! I pulled some more dirt out and got another signal and wouldn’t you know it, it was another tiny nail. At this point I stood up and stretched my back and as I contemplated moving on I literally thought about Dewsweeper’s advice saying “no rush and no stress” (THANK YOU!!!). I got back to the hole and found a third pinpointer signal and pulled out a clump of dirt with a flat piece of metal in it. I gently brushed it with my gloved hand and some dirt fell off revealing what I thought must be a pendant. A second light brush revealed “1965” and the word Honor. I thought to myself that this might be a Fireman’s medal from down the street. I quickly put it in my good finds spot and thought about how cool it was going to be to get it home and clean it up and take it back to the fire station and hopefully get it back to the firefighter or the family of the person who earned it. I hunted a little while longer and got back in the car. I started looking at some of my finds and as I looked at the “Fireman’s medal”, that’s when it happened. The dirt had dried a bit and I could now see the markings better. I got the 65 right but it wasn’t 1965, I could now see that it said 1861-1865! I turned it over and couldn’t believe it when I saw the Confederate Battle Flag!!! 😳. Y’all I drove that 2 hrs home in record time so that I could get it clean enough to see the rest. I still can’t believe it but I found the Southern Cross of Honor! You can google it but it was awarded starting in 1899 to veterans of the Civil War who served in the Confederate services in the Civil War. To give you an idea of what a huge deal it is, there is still a statute to this day in Virginia that any person caught wearing one that is not a veteran of the Confederacy (all have passed on) will be fined $500. Wow! As you can tell, I am beyond excited and I will never forget this find! Lastly, I am going to attempt to find the great grandchildren of this veteran and return it. If that is not possible, I am going to consider donating it to a Confederate museum if there is one close by. If that turns out to be a bad option I am going to have it professionally cleaned and mounted in a shadow box and I will proudly display it on my wall for the rest of my days. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think the other stuff is. 👍
 

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FYI - button seems blank and is size of dime - shamrock thing is size of half dollar - Girl’s face is slightly larger than a quarter.
 
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Those are killer finds! Huge WTG!

Don't even think about trying to find the great great grandchildren because there are no personal identifying markings on that cross.
 
Thanks y’all! The Shamrock plate is smaller than a full size heel of a man. Is that normal? Of course I wear a size 15 boot so I’m a bad comparison in the field. Haha
 
Thanks y’all! The Shamrock plate is smaller than a full size heel of a man. Is that normal? Of course I wear a size 15 boot so I’m a bad comparison in the field. Haha

That means it would have went on a child's shoe. Awesome finds! Gotta love this forum, not many come here with questions, and leave with them unanswered. Congrats!
 
Good play-by-play. Good pix. Fun finds ! Toy-soldier has great input on the ID's.
 
Thanks y’all! The Shamrock plate is smaller than a full size heel of a man. Is that normal? Of course I wear a size 15 boot so I’m a bad comparison in the field. Haha

The heel plate is standard size for the male population of those times. If a man stood 5'8" he was considered tall a 6 foot man was a giant. The shoe sizes of 8-10 was most common. Regardless your finds are fantastic. Congrats on digging some real historical treasures. Trapper
 
Wow!!!!!!!!! Some great finds. Congrats.


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Great post Boondocks! I had a feeling you were going to find something good. No idea it was going to be Civil War medal of honor good! Very nice dig! You should work on that shadow box for it. At this point, it probably has more meaning to you than to any far removed descendants. (careful with the cleaning!) The old heel plate and flat button are likely of the same period. The piece with the lady's head on it might be part of a makeup compact lid, or other woman's vanity piece.
I hope you can go back to hunt there another day...or many days. Sounds like a great location that probably has more coinage too. GL & HH
 
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