Amazing Civil War Relic Found 10 Inches Deep, In Another Man's Hole!

"I don't think I would have believed this story had I not dug this find up myself and written about it!I recently went to the latest field, the one where multiple detectors hunt everyday. After searching the lower grass area for awhile and finding nothing of note, I moved toward the far right corner where I had found two good bullets the other day. I found the knapsack J hook in the above photo on Friday. I got a good signal on one of the banks leading towards the railroad track and found another nice confederate gardner bullet about 6 inches down. But I had know idea what I was about to find.

I made my way up to the very corner of the field and that someone had already dug hole there. This was an almost perfectly cylindrical hole about 6 inches across and about 9 inches deep."Now, about half the time when I'm out there and I come across a hole, filled in or not, I run my coil over it to see if the previous digger missed something. I did this with this hole and got a very loud tone that sounded like a surface soda can. " Wow," I said. "What the heck is that and why didn't they dig it up?" I thought maybe the digger had found some junk and left it in the bottom of the hole but I felt down to the bottom and felt un dug, packed earth. I then stuck my probe in the hole to see if I could pin point where the object was. The sound was strong over the entire bottom of the hole. I just kept thinking "What in the world is this?"

Taking my shovel, I started to open up the perimeter of the backside of the hole to see if I could get a better approach to what was in there. Digging deep and behind the signal I started to bring up the shovel full of dirt when I saw something come up. I sat there, stunned for a second trying to comprehend what I was looking at as I was looking at the backside. I plucked the item up and turned it over What I was staring at was a Union (most likely officer's) sword belt plate. The plate is in great shape with just the backside hook being broken; probably the reason why it was discarded. Someone actually left this in the ground???

The only thing I can gather is that maybe the digger had started digging this hole when it was getting dark, they didn't have a flashlight, and they didn't have a probe. But would anyone actually leave a signal that strong in a civil war relic field that was 10 inches in the ground? I guess so. And I thought finding the 1819 Large Cent around other holes in that field was amazing. All I could keep saying all the way home was "Unbelievable", and " Thank you God."