Question about musket balls and buttons I found

[Accteam]

Hello,

I have a question for anyone who is willing to give some ideas. My son and I were metal detecting in this park-like area and for a good part of the day, we found nothing but light trash and some pocket change.

I finally got a hit, which was very solid. At about 4 or 6 inches, up came my first musket ball. Shocked does not fully explain how I truly felt. I called my son over and he also could not believe what I had just found. We quickly started to grid off this area and it turned out to be a great spot. We would return back a few times to find about 24 musket balls, 8 buttons, 1830 5 cent piece, 1852 3 cent piece and a 1835 some kind of military naval coin.

The Question:

As I explained, we found all of this stuff in a small area. About the size of half a football field. But this area is much...much bigger. Why would all this only show up in that area and not mixed around in the whole field? Is there a way to tell if the musket balls have been fired or not? I'm trying to figure out if they were all dropped or maybe from being shot at. And last question, looking at the type of buttons we found, which side did they belong to?

PS: Also if anyone knows what the two metal objects are used for?

Thanks in advance for any help, tips, advice. My son and I are looking forward to hearing about this.

Jon

 

[Brian(upstateNY)]

<center> great finds there
hard to say if they are fired, normally find a flat spot on them tho or a few dings into them.
The finds can be anyplace and could have been a small structure there at one time or someone on the move just stopped for awhile to camp.
Great finds tho and keep checking it too,

Top picture the one on the bottom right looks like a saw nut, is there a broken shaft on the other side?


Great buttons tho

a few buttons there are early to mid 1800's
one eagle with sun is early to mid 1900's

 

[Accteam]

Hello,

Looking at the buttons I found and aside from the one which is from the early 1900...which group did the buttons come from, Confederates or Union?

Last question, my son wants to know if the coins we found came from the same people who left the musketballs or where the coins there before??? Because the dates on the coins are 1830, 1803, and 1835, but the civil war started 1861 to I beleive 65.


Thanks again,
Jon

 

[FrontierWest]

n/t