Found! Civil War Badge!

By John Hitt

A Top 10 Winner for 2001!

I was hunting with my brother and another hunting buddy in Natchitoches Parish, La. We knew that several thousand troops had been through there on there way to Mansfield, La. We had hunted that area
several times only finding a few buttons and a few bullets, but no camp.

That morning we decided to split up so we could cover a larger area. I was hunting a ridge that we had not seen before. I worked the ridge for about an hour, I found a few nice dropped bullets. I got another good signal and thought "good, another dropped bullet". I dug the first shovel full but it was still in the muddy hole. I dug the second and the signal was in it. I reached down and grabbed a handful of the mud and it was in my hand. I was rubbing the mud out of my hand when I saw a little silver. I could see a little writing and my first thought was a reale. As I cleaned it off more, I saw the shape of the badge. I couldn't believe it.

With some research and a lot of help from some really nice people like Jim upstate NY, The Carolina Rebel and others we found that Charles Fournia mustered in at the age of 24 in Plattsburg, New York, Came by boat to New Orleans and then up the Red River. The records show that the 2nd Cav., New York Vet. Vol., known as the "Empire Light Cavalry" came through Natchitoches Parish on there way to Mansfield, La. and retreated back through after the battle on there way back to Alexandria.

The pin was gone off the back of the Badge and it was not a camp so I suspect that it was torn off his uniform by a limb and Sgt. Fournia never knew where when lost it.