Metal Detecting Civil War Era Sites

Amos Wilt joined the Union forces at the age of 18 in Grafton, West Virginia. Although the name of his unit changed several times, ultimately he is identified as being a member of the 6th West Virginia Voluntary Cavalry, Company E.

As families prepared for their loved ones to go off to war, one concern was that they would perish in battle and they would go unidentified, In this case, as many families did, Amos;s mother or sister or father ground off the face of a capped bust half dime and engraved it with the information they hoped would never be needed to identify their son.

Amos's unit was busy, seeing action in a number of arenas. At one point his unit is ambushed and many become prisoners of war, Amos is not one of them. After action at Harper's Ferry and a tour pursuing Mosby's Raiders, the unit is moved to Washington. With the assassination of President Lincoln, his unit is one that is dispatched to capture or kill John Wilkes Booth.

The end of the war brought a desire for the men of the WVVC to return home. They were enlisted in the US Army and the company was assigned to address troubles out west. His unit was assigned to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Many of the men deserted. They had joined to save the union, not to fight the Indians that were causing trouble to the west. Amos did as he was told and was assigned to a fort on Colorado to protect a small town, the pony express route, and a telegraph line.

Here, too, he saw action. The Indians burned the small town to the ground on one raid. On another, they lured the cavalry into a trap in a box canyon. Had a few of the overzealous braves not been so loud and early with their war cries, the trap might have worked. As it was, there was a running battle back to the fort. Maybe it was at this point that a small engraved coin broke from the string that it hung from and fell to the ground.

The fort saw many units come through to help in the defense of the lines and travel routes. One of the most famous, or infamous, was the Seventh Cavalry under General George Custer. But that will be another story.

Amos would survive and muster out of the army on May 22, 1866. I don't know where he went from there. Maybe back home to the farm or ouut west to find gold. Maybe Niwot;s curse took him to the front range of the Rockies. Most of those who deserted were later pardoned and the desertions expunged from their records.

In 2004, some friends and I approached the farmer that owned the land where the fort once stood and gained permission to hunt the area. I had been here many times before but the plowed fields promised new stories and treasures. During the course of the day, I had dug an eagle button and several mini balls in various states of disrepair. Shortly before lunch, the Minelab gave the high pitched sound of a silver target. As I opened the clod of dirt, I saw the tiny silver coin with only the faintest remains of the eagle of a capped bust half dime on the back. It wasn't until I returned to the car and retrieved my glasses that I could read the obverse of the coin. A. Wilt Co. E 6th W.V.V.C

Maybe someday I'll find his relatives. I would love to tell them this story in person. Then we would share our treasured pasts.