|
A few months back a good
friend of mine Mike Kuzminski asked if I would like to join a
group and take a trip to a site he and a few of his friends
found a few months back. Mike told me they had been finding a lot
of pre 1812 as well as 1812 buttons and relics from this site. I
thought it would be a blast so I decided to go. Mike had already
made arrangements for Troy Galloway to go so Troy and I hooked
up for the trip over to Louisiana.
Mike and the gang had us all
fixed up! He had us a place to stay with no rent, cooked meals
everyday at no cost, just down right southern hospitality at its
finest. If you've never had south Louisiana cookin your missing
some good grub! Everyone was excited about the hunt, and
the chances of finding some real good relics. Mike had told us
we would find war of 1812 relics as well as pre 1812. That's all
I needed to hear, and the next morning couldn't come quick
enough!
Morning came as I was awakened by
the smell of coffee and laughter amongst friends. I could feel
the excitement in the air, and quickly put my clothes on and
gathered my gear. " Good Mornings " were exchanged and
off we went to the glory hole. We arrived at the site about an
hour later and I could smell the relics. The place was
beautiful, and was a great location for a camp. People were
talking, but I was zoning ;-) deciding on which part I wanted to
hit first. Mike showed me where he had found several nice
buttons, and that's where I went to work. Just minutes later I
had a 1812 corps button, Mike had several nice L.A. 1 buttons,
and the others had several themselves. By the end of the first
day there had been about 30 buttons found. Everyone couldn't
wait to return the following day.
Day 2 we did some scouting in
other places, and day 3 we went back to the camp. When we
arrived, I told myself, I'm going to hunt very slow and dig
anything that pops just barely above nail. My very first target
I recovered a button down about 9 inches. It had dirt on it and
I couldn't tell what it was at that time, and told myself I
would clean it off later. He found an 1812 bust half, Richard
found a complete oval rev. war buckle, and half of another one.
Mike found a nice script R.R. button, and Troy had several nice
regimental buttons himself, all in all a great day!
It was time to go home and Troy
and I bid our farewells, and praised the guys for an outstanding
weekend, and one we would never forget. On our way home, troy
was driving, and I was cleaning buttons. I remembered the first
button I dug that had dirt on it. I pulled it out and was
carefully cleaning the dirt from the button with a rounded tooth
pick, as wood wont scratch brass. After a little cleaning, I
could make out the word " Second ". I asked troy if
his button book was handy he said yeah its under the gear behind
the seat, well I reached back there and sliced my hand open on a
cane knife Ooooouch! Bleed like a stuffed pig! Needless to say I
wasn't able to clean anymore.
I finished cleaning the button
the next 4 days and posted it on the depot photo forum as I had
no clue what I had found, never seen one before. Warren Tice and
John powell had been in contact with me on some other buttons
for their up coming button book, so I decided to send John
Powell a pic of this button. John is a very smart man when it
comes to buttons, and had this button I.D.'d within a few
minutes of the phone call.
This button is a French Second
Regiment Marine Artillerist officers button made in 1803. Now
this had me puzzled as Louisiana had been handed over to the
U.S. government by the French in 1803. This button was
discontinued in the middle of 1805, which means this button was
produced for a very short time and for a regiment only. I
started thinking as well as John Powell. John told me this
button is truly one of a kind. Here's a little why. In 1803
there was only 1 French frigate to meet the U.S. government and
hand over Louisiana and that was the frigate "Leonard".
The rest of the fleet stayed in open waters until the Leonard
returned later that day and off they sailed. So I know what ship
this button came from, and I might narrow it down to a few
people as there were only a few, if not 1 officer per frigate, I'm
still researching the list of enlistment to the Leonard in 1803.
The other neat thing about this button, it was just produced for
these regiments when they came to hand over Louisiana, and the
officer lost this button while a document was being signed ;-)
They were only there for maybe an hour tops, and the history
books said they quickly left.
This French fleet had the 1st,
second, third, and fourth marine artillerist regiments aboard
the many vessels, and on the way home, they encountered the
whole British navy at "some islands I cant remember the
name off hand". Well the British destroyed and sank many of
the French vessels, and many of these regiments if not all
perished. This makes this button extremely rare, and these are
facts of occurrences, not fictional stories. What is really neat
about this whole ordeal to me is this:
No one really knew where the
actually Louisiana purchase had taken place, until now ;-) Now
the site is precise in location just because of one single
little button. There's only a few that know of this place, and I
don't blame these fellas for keeping quite until they are
finished hunting it. I know they will spill the beans when they
are finished, I swore to my name to keep this site a secret, so their
fun wouldn't be dampened by anything. I would like to return
someday for the fellowship and maybe dig another one of these
rare buttons " yeah right ! I would like to thank Mike for
showing us a great time, and thanks to all the folks I meet and
the hospitality. This is a hunt I will never forget, Thanks
Mike! I owe ya one ;-) I wish you all great success in the
field, Larry Cissna ---
TR
|
