Confederate Campsite? Cache??

[Toadie]

Okay, I am going a long way back now.. When I was about 3 or 4 (32-33 years ago) I remember going with my mother and aunt metal detecting. We were on a spot on the Sabine river and my aunt was using a DTEX. She found several items that I realize now were cannonballs?? They were rusty, some of the metal was peeling away and the insides are lead I think. I remember them because I wanted one (although I can't remember why at the time) and my aunt put one in an old toesack. She let me drag it back to the car and my cousin has it to this day. I remember it cause it was so heavy. That was the only one that was kept then. The rest were left where they were found. Now I know they are still there as my oldest sister is 46 and she reminded me they were still there Thursday. We stopped and I brought out the old Bounty Hunter I, that I still use and in about 10 minutes I found four more of them right away in one hole. They don't weather too good in this blackland mud and I will describe them.. They are rusty on the outside, almost impossible to tell what they are. Now get this, the inside of two I picked up are shiny like lead if you scrape them, soft metal. I haven't checked the other two... When you put bleach on them the shiny part turns black. They weigh about 40 pounds each. While detecting I was getting readings faintly on iron but crazy on mineral. So far I have flagged 18 more of these. After checking two more holes I realized that there are normally four to a hole. All give the same tone. I was told by my mother that it was a Confederate campsite in the last part of the war and the Confederates were headed into the Blackcat Thickets. That they buried these "balls" to make moving easier and were to recover them after the war. Now that got me to wondering.. There is a book called Murder at The Corners that has to do with this same area and it claims there was a Confederate cache buried near the Sabine and never fully recovered. Why if they were cannonballs did they want to recover them after the war?

Doesn't silver turn black with bleach??

James

[Pat]

How about a picture of those cannonballs!

Pat

[Toadie]

Only have scanner at this time. Digital is off for repairs.


James

[Pat]

Sorry to hear about your digital! Maybe in the future! Would love to see some pictures!

Pat

[PAPPY]

JAMES, YOU MAY VERY WELL BE ON TO SOMETHING HERE !! If they appear 4 to a hole it was possibly an artilery hill. That is the was they used to stack their ammo. HOWEVER, at times some of the cannon balls WERE packed with silver that was being transported to a safe house. Check it out really good. PLEASE be careful with your finds...A whole lot of the balls were NEVER DE-FUSED and could be VERY DANGEROUS. Handle them very carefully and place them in water before working with them.If this was an artilery site there should be fuses and implements to be found. SOUNDS LIKE A WONDERFUL SITE..KEEP UP THE REALLY GREAT WORK...PAPPY:smile: :smile: :smile:

[Gregory]

Hi James,

I bet your excited!
Keep us posted and keep this site secret if you can:icon_wink

Also log all of your activity, this would make a good story in W/E

[Toadie]

As far as I know family members that were present in the first digs long ago are the only ones that know about the location. To be totally honest I had forgot about them till my older sis and I were talking one day and riding around. I reminded her that I had a camp meeting on the 1st and she said oh yeah, and proceeded to ask me if I had taken any cannonballs o share with fellow members. I said no, why and she stated well they are so and so and I figured you have been there. We did a u-turn made a beeline outta town and basically with her navigating went to the spot. I grabbed the old BH1 outta the toolbox of the truck and we made our way past the saw briars and underbrush to the spot I remembered. The rest I have already told. I am glad that my sis remembered..


Never thought about live ones.:icon_conf

Found out how they found the location originally. My grandmother use to work in an old nursing home in Caddo Mills or Greenville(I am not sure which town) and one of the old men there (a UCV) told her about the spot. Years later, Grandma told Aunt Ruby (the original treasure hunter in the family) and after about seven months of research they located the spot. My Grandma was born in 1913 and died in 1996.

[treasurehunter00]

Hi James , great story and u may have stumbled on a really great site, but like Pappy said be very careful with them cannon balls, i bet u will find a lot of great relic's there, spots like that are a rare find these days..........good luck and may it be silver in them balls , please keep us all posted ........jack

[Toadie]

After checking the old family bible and checking with my Murphy kin, a couple of towns over, over in Famersville, I found that this was one of the campsites regularly used during the Lee-Peacock feud after the war. (Look up Murder at the Corners by G.B. Ray) Seems it was also a camp used rather frequently during the war when the state was first sending the boys up north to fight and although the river wasn't big enough for steamboats, they used this location as a crossing whenever going and coming. Seems the town was also where two railroads crossed.

My grandmother's cousin made a rather long detailed description of the area after he found out from Grandma about it. This is what my Aunt used to locate the site with. I have it now. He was going to have the area excavated but got killed in a plane crash outside of Roanoke VA before he got around to it. This was in 1971. He left detailed records with my aunt as to the exact location. Notes include "careful for live ordinace". He was big on history and wanted to preserve all he could on the war that he could. That is why he was headed into Roanoke, to donate some money to help preserve a battlefield.

[WVaTom]

the pics.neat story and good luck to ya.:grin:

[morestuff!]

adjutant1351:
Very interesting site you are researching. Good luck with your search!

You mention your Grandmother's cousin making a description years ago. Do you mean THE Audie Murphy?!?