Civil War relics have always interested me, but up until little over a year ago I didn't pursue the interest.  I borrowed a detector from my Father-in-law and hunted my yard.  I found a couple of match box cars, several coins and an old hammer.  This really surprised me and raised my interest in the hobby.  I turned to the Internet for more information on several types of detectors.  I contacted Al at Al's Discount Detectors and with his advice purchased a Tesoro Bandito II Micro Max (THANKS AL! ).  I lost my right arm in a work accident 27 years ago, therefore I had to find a detector that offered an ease of use with one hand.  I hunted for several weeks in my spare time before I found my first Civil War relic.  It was a sharps bullet.  I cleaned it until it looked like new  (we learn from our mistakes).  That experience got me hooked.  Shortly after that find, my brother, Mike, and nephew, Scott joined me in my hunting.  The three of us hunt in our every spare moment.  We are relic hunting fanatics.  I have been hunting steadily for a little over a year now.  I enjoy every aspect of the Civil War.  I collect books and maps as well.  I am a member of the Chattanooga Area Relic Hunters and Historic Association (found on-line at www.carha.org).  I am always researching the maps for a place to hunt or hunting previous places.

My hunting partners and I located a field, where corn had been grown, near Dalton, GA.  It seemed to be a good place to hunt, because we had found several bullets in the general area.  My brother and nephew went to the land owner for permission.  They were told that they were welcome to hunt, but that it had been hunted a thousand times.  We decided to give it a shot and thank goodness we did.  We found several three ringer mini balls, Union eagle buttons and miscellaneous brass items.  Along with the good finds were the usual trash items such as bottle caps, aluminum cans and pull tabs.  Most of the C.W. items found were Union, so this lead us to believe that it could be a Union camp.

The big find occurred on the hot afternoon of August the 18th.  Mike and I had dug quite a bit of the usual trash.  As Mike stood beside me, I got a good signal.  "Sounds like a digger", Mike said.  "It's a good signal", I replied.  " To good of a signal" he chuckled as he walked toward the opposite side of the field.  I had no idea, as I started to dig this hole, that in it would be the greatest relic in my collection.  I dug about two inches into the ground when I found it.  Of course, the first thing I did was let out a rebel yell to get Mike's attention.  After drooling for a few minutes, I called my wife and daughters to tell them the news.  Looking back on hunting the field on previous days, both Mike and Scott think they may have picked up the signal from the buckle, but did not dig it because they figured it was trash, due to the intensity of the signal it gave. 

The feeling of excitement over this find was unbelievable.  I am still on cloud nine.        
Thanks,  Lamar