Possible Confederate Civil War Iron Ingot? What Do You Guys Think?

[Dcraun]

I found this iron bar in a Confederate camp in Rockingham county Virginia when it first came out of the ground I could barely make out the x marks on it through the rust after soaking in electrolysis overnight this is what I found. Could this possibly be a CSA made iron ingot there are several Old Stone furnaces in the area that supplied iron to the South during the Civil war. But they produced pig iron not such a well refined bar to the best of my knowledge. What do you guys think?

[Dcraun]

There's a thin piece on each end that looks like these could have been chained together in a strip and then broken off as needed

[F350Platinum]

Entirely possible, cool find. 👍

When i think of the term "ingot", this shape comes to mind:

If you search using the term, that is mostly what you see, an oblong trapezoidal shape, presumably for stacking.

[Rick N. MI]

It is an interesting find.

[GB_Amateur]

Any documentation that these were used during the CW and for what?  That would definitely help authenticate it.  Does seem kind of small if meant to be a chunk of iron intended to be repurposed.  If it were lead that would be a different story.  Quite interesting & tantalizing find so far, though.  Some knowledgeable CW detectorists (e.g. @Chase Goldman) here yet to comment, and if that goes nowhere there are likely online forums full of collectors who might be able to help.

[Doc Bach]

Very interesting relic and chunk of big iron.You were wise to dig that target that many may have ignored altogether and also wise that you did not chuck over to the base of the nearest tree and catogorise it as leaverite.

[Chase Goldman]

10 hours ago, Dcraun said:

I found this iron bar in a Confederate camp in Rockingham county Virginia when it first came out of the ground I could barely make out the x marks on it through the rust after soaking in electrolysis overnight this is what I found. Could this possibly be a CSA made iron ingot there are several Old Stone furnaces in the area that supplied iron to the South during the Civil war. But they produced pig iron not such a well refined bar to the best of my knowledge. What do you guys think?

Not sure if it is bar stock or not.  Like you said, iron was smelted to create cast pig iron as a bar stock for tools and other ferrous items.  A search online shows these crude bars.

It would be strange to make the effort to mark an ingot as shown only to melt and repurpose it for other uses.  To me it seems to be purposeful design for some practical or aesthetic use.  That being said, I'm not ruling out your theory that the markings are used as a guide to cut the bar stock or something to aid a blacksmith.  Whatever the actual purpose, it's a unique find.  Glad you preserved it.

[JCR]

It could be a purpose made weight.

[Valens Legacy]

That looks like the old iron bar that I have seen before in grandfathers garage.

I bet it is close to 9 in long, 1 1/2 in wide and about 3/4 in thick. Should that be the case it is from the early 1800's and would be stock items that blacksmiths would make a lot of items from. The x's on it was the grade of the iron as x would be the highest grade.

Grandfather told me this years ago and I was fascinated about what he told me about a lot of his relics that he had.

Good luck on finding out more about it.