My Militia Plate

By Sam James

It was late Spring I believe, beautiful day, lots of sunshine; I was at work (as usual). Joe, a co-worker who happens to share the same interest in Mding, called me to see if I had time at lunch to do a little comparison detecting. Joe had a new Explorer and wanted to see how it compared with my XLT. We have a small piece of property (about 300’ by 300") at the end of out parking lot that once had an old farmhouse on it. This was perfect; we didn’t have to leave the property to go detecting. We weren’t having much luck finding anything of interest, scraps of copper and pieces of iron. I would find a target then he would compare with the Explorer, for the most part we would agree as to weather or not it was a good target.

What I know about this property, the house was tore down in the late 50s by our company and for the most part, has remained untouched since. Another friend of mine told me that his grandfather use to go to the circus on this property (mostly under asphalt now) back in the early 1900s. Boy would I love to see them tear up the parking lot.

Anyway, about 20 minutes into the hunt I got a signal on my XLT that registered about 78 or so on the VDI meter, good penny sign I said. I called to Joe to check it with his machine then marked the spot and moved away a bit so our machines wouldn’t interfere with each other. While waiting I got a quarter signal and started to dig it up when Joe says that the signal looked good to him, and did I want him to dig it up. I said sure since I was digging another hole. I ended up with a 1965 clad quarter and while I was cleaning it up, Joe comes walking up and says, "I think it’s a belt buckle". I instantly dropped what I was doing and looked at what he had dug. I could see the bar on the back but it was nearly bent in half. One third of the front was covered by the bend. I carefully brushed away some of the loose dirt and the first thing I saw was the head of an eagle. This is where the cleaning stopped.

We decided to take it in with us since it was time to go back to work anyway. I couldn’t wait though. The first thing I did was to run it under water to get a better look. The more I rinsed the more I could see, a beautiful silver plated eagle.

I have since sent the plate to Roland Frodigh at Hallowed Ground Restorations in Annandale, VA. . Probably the best $75 I spent all year, the plate was straightened and remained in tact. Now one of my favorite finds.

Positive ID was, Waist Belt Plate, Common Militia Plate, ca. 1832-1845

Found by Sam James, (Sam in Indiana/ Iron Brigade)

Northwest Indiana