RELIC DIGGINGS

Knoxville, Tennessee was the scene of much military activity during the Civil War. In 1861, Camp Cummings was established in the vicinity of the current fairgrounds and zoo. This was the main Confederate training camp in East Tennessee. Edmund Kirby Smith launched his Kentucky campaign from Knoxville via Cumberland Gap. The Confederate army of General Braxton Bragg retreated to Knoxville after the battle of Perryville Ky. The East Tenn. and Virginia Railroad was a major conduit for Troops, supplies, munitions and food stuffs for the Conferderate government in Virginia. Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Ohio wrested Knoxville from Confederate control in Sept. of 1863. These troops consisted of the 23rd and 9th U.S. Army corps formerly of the Army of the Potomac. They immediately occupied and fortified Loudon. Not long thereafter, General James Longstreet's Division drove the Yankees from Loudon, and pursued them into the fortifications of Knoxville, fighting a running battle along the Kingston Pike.The siege of Knoxville began in earnest, culminating in the attack on Fort Sanders. This resulted in a bloody repulse for the Confederates who retreated to the vicinity of Bean's Station in the face of Union reinforcements under Sherman. These are some of my recent finds from Knoxville. February 2006           click to enlarge

    
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 Here are some of my recent knoxville
finds. I was particularly happy to dig
5 silver coins in one outing. You really
have to work it like a dancer to find
relics here in the concrete jungle.
   October, 2OO8 

    

     



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U.S. Cartridge box plate struck by a 12 lb. shell
or fragment thereof. Note the associated finds.
Chickamauga Battlefield. October, 2008

     

     

     

     

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Dwayne Davis, Lynn Redford and myself had a great couple of days digging
near Wartrace, TN. Dec. 29-30. We found the winter 1863 camp of the 37th
Georgia Infantry who were in William B. Bate's Brigade CSA. On the first day
I dug 7 Georgia State Seal buttons and 2 Confederate Staff buttons ( I put
the shovel through one of them). Raedford dug the CS Haiman style saber
the next day. Dwayne will dig the CSA belt plate when we go back.

     

Tullahoma, TN. and N. Virginia



     

Coffee Co., TN.



     

Middlesboro, KY., and Chickamauga, GA.

 

 

Bedford Co. TN.    

     

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Perfect "Atlanta Arsenal" CSA Belt plate
dug by Roger Thompson here in Knoxville.
April, 2010.

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Recent Knoxville vicinity diggings.