Second Seminole Indian War Finds

[ColonelDan]

I and several detecting buddies supported a local museum a year ago by metal detecting a Second Seminole Indian War site that was occupied by the 2nd Dragoons from December 1837 to March of 1838. Below is just a sampling of our finds from that area. Many more uniform buttons, musket balls of various calibers and such not shown here came from our hunts.

We suspect that one of their supply boats either sank or capsized since all the finds below were in the same general 25 square yard area. In digging down to retrieve these artifacts, I did hit wood deep in the muck ergo our thoughts that these finds came from a lost boat.

The fort was constructed on the shores of a local lake and all finds thus far have been from that lake. We've yet to find the exact location of the fort itself but we have a good idea where it was. A modern road and house construction however prevents us from successfully searching the suspected area.


dragoon uniform button




period ring


buttons and a few musket balls


Bayonet with scabbard


I found this breast plate in knee deep water and 16 inches deep in the lake muck, This is just the way it came from the muck. No cleaning was needed!


raw anchor after encrustation was removed. It took two of us over 45 minutes to extract this anchor from the lake's muck.


preserved anchor


One of our displays we made for the museum.

We'll be headed back to the site in the coming year.

[Chase Goldman]

Incredible finds, Dan.  Both in terms of what they are and the condition they are in.  Great job by you and your team.

[FloridaSon]

Excellent artifacts Col. Dan! Were you Using your beach three tones settings?

[ColonelDan]

17 minutes ago, FloridaSon said:

Excellent artifacts Col. Dan! Were you Using your beach three tones settings?

These were found pre-EQX.  The team and I were using CTX 3030s and Excalibers.  My CTX was set to 2 tones, open screen and optimized for relics.  When relic hunting, I always use all metal and dig everything...iron artifacts are valued too.  😉

[FloridaSon]

Absolutely! I value big iron at the beach as well.

Thanks

[ColonelDan]

Another interesting button we found was one from the War of 1812. That's a script "I" for infantry. My research indicated that such buttons were re-issued from surplus 1812 vintage stock to the soldiers of the Seminole war period.

[GB_Amateur]

Is this the same site that Tom Dankowski wrote up for Fisher here?

[ColonelDan]

17 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Is this the same site that Tom Dankowski wrote up for Fisher here?

No, it’s not the same site.

[ColonelDan]

Thank you all for those kind words.  I’ll update our progress on this site as events unfold.

[2Valen]

Great finds Dan, simply beautiful relics.