Its funny sometimes how often we are ready to label a site "hunted out".  As finds get fewer and far between, too often we are convinced that a site has nothing left to offer.  Anyone who has ever hunted behind a bulldozer can tell you this is not true.  Artifacts quite often lie in great profusion just below the reach of modern metal detectors. 

These undiscovered artifacts may be covered by thick layers of modern soil overburden but more often they are buried in manmade subsurface features. These features consist of pits, trenches and other types of excavations that penetrate into the ground.  Subsurface features can vary in depth from a few inches to over 30 feet.  On 18th century military encampment sites, these features are usually less than 4 feet in depth.  They usually consist of hut-holes, fire-pits, trash-pits or latrines and drainage ditches.

Hut-holes are only found in camps occupied for extended periods and usually only in camps used during cold weather.  These actually are the excavations made for the construction of a soldiers hut.  Sometimes these were pronounced holes dug into the ground, while at other times, they were partial excavations made in a hillside to level the ground for a building.  Eighteenth century military huts usually had a dimension of approximately 13'
by 13'.  Thus you could be looking at a pretty big hole.  The huts could house a single officer or up to 12 enlisted men.  Usually in the American Army, soldiers were discouraged from digging their huts down into the ground for sanitary and health reasons.  The British Army seems to have been fonder of sinking their soldier's huts into the soil.  This practice may have been a result of the British occupying areas where timber was in short supply.  Sinking the hut down into the ground greatly reduced the amount of wood used in its construction.  Hut-holes can be very difficult to identify since when they were abandoned, surrounding soil often caved into and buried them.

Fire-pits are found in almost all camps but not every hut or tent site had one.  The deepest and most productive fire-pits are found inside some hut holes in winter encampments.  The fire-pit itself is the excavation made for the fireplace.  They vary from a few inches deep to well over 2 feet.  They are often easy to identify when opened because the soil is heavily charged with charcoal, burned bone etc.  They can be very interesting features because soldiers often threw their garbage in them when they abandoned their camps.  Sometimes fantastic artifacts are found in fire-pits but more often than not they contain only bone, ash and melted lead.

Trash-pits & Latrines are also found in most camps.  These were dug as receptacles for garbage and human waste.  In camps used for long periods of time, these features can be full of artifacts.  They tend to be the deepest types of features, usually from 2 to 4 feet deep.  They are very difficult to locate since they usually were located a good distance from the actual camp.  Typically latrines will be situated from 50 to 150 yards from the closest hut or tent sites.

Drainage ditches are usually found in long term encampments.  These were excavations made so as to channel water away from hut and tent sites.  They vary from a few inches to over 1 foot deep.  Drainage ditches are very large features but they are difficult to locate since they usually have been filled with silt.  The ditches can contain a wealth of artifacts but often they are empty.  During their use, they had to be kept clean and the scouring action of running water often washed away any artifacts that fell in them.


Fire-pit digging has always been of great interest to me.  These subsurface features often are excellent time capsules which contain information not only on the material culture of the army but also about the diet of the soldiers.  The soil environment inside a fire-pit often allows for excellent preservation of bone, leather, cloth and sometimes even paper. The first one I excavated was found purely by accident years ago in a brigade
sized encampment of the Virginia Line.  While digging a deeply buried barrel band from a Charleville musket, I noticed an abnormal discoloration of the surrounding soil.  Having worked on numerous subsurface features during my 10 years in archaeology, it was obvious to me that I had stumbled upon some type of pit feature.

I was soon back with proper tools, a field book for taking notes/measurements and a camera.  Excavation revealed a small fire-pit, approximately 18" deep, 3 feet wide by 3 feet long.  The pit was not lined with stone which I thought was unusual at the time but later came to find out was typical for this particular site.  The fill of the pit consisted of brown silty loam with a moderate amount of minute dispersed charcoal fragments.  Within the fill were numerous small and medium sized bits of local rock.  At some time after the pit had been abandoned, it had been inundated by water which eroded a large amount reddish clay subsoil into the pit which had mixed with the silty loam.  Because of this, there was no clear soil stratigraphy (layering) within the
feature itself, the charcoal, ash and loam were widely dispersed and mixed. After excavation, this feature was recorded, measured, photographed and marked.  All artifacts were washed and kept together for study.

Within the fill of the pit were approximately (31) small fragments of bone, primarily cattle as would be expected but also several fragments possibly from deer and birds.  About half the fragments showed evidence of having been thermally altered by fire.  Two fragments of a dark manganese glazed, footed redware vessel were found but no other pieces could be located in the feature or adjacent to it.
 

Weapon related artifacts included the Charleville musket barrel band mentioned earlier, (1) small fragment of casting sprue for buck shot and (1) burned gun flint.  Sixteen lead musket balls were recovered of which (14) were standard .69 caliber balls for use in the Charleville musket, (1) was a.72 caliber ball for use in a British Land type musket and (1) was an approximately .64 caliber ball for use in an unidentified weapon.  (28) buck
shot were recovered along with (1) partially melted musket ball fused with a single buck shot.

Miscellaneous artifacts included (2) iron nail fragments, (1) iron wire fragment, (9) pieces of cut or hammered lead and (10) pieces of melted lead.  One twisted brass loop was found but its use is undetermined.  Five civilian clothing buttons were recovered from this feature.  One was an unusual two piece design, having a white metal "tombac" rear half  with a cast brass front section soldered to it.  The other (4) buttons were identical cast
white metal buttons of civilian design.  These buttons have a rope border and a center decoration consisting of an "X" over a stylized floral diamond.  It is evident that the mold for this particular button was in possession of a soldier in one of the regiments in this brigade since this same style of button had been recovered previously from several hut sites throughout this encampment.

Figure 4. Close-up of Buttons recovered from Fire-pit #1

Conclusion - Fire-pit #1, although damaged by erosion, proved to be small but still somewhat typical to others in terms of construction and size.  However, the artifacts assemblage from this feature was unusual by virtue of the presence of the large number of musket balls present within it and the paucity of bone fragments.  The musketballs recovered were consistent with the type of weaponry believed to have been used by these troops (primarily.69 cal. French Charleville muskets, a few old British muskets & other weapons).  The Charleville musket barrel band was another artifact that belied the widespread use of French weapons in the Virginia Line at this time period.  Bone fragments while limited in number, also tended to confirm the efficiency of the Continental authorities in providing beef to the troops in the field during the spring of 1779. While there is possible evidence that the troops in this particular hut supplemented their diet with deer and fowl, fragments from these animals are in the minority.