Last Sunday afternoon I decided to get out and check a lot near downtown Vicksburg where an old house had been demolished by the City. The lot had been cleaned quite well, so the scanning with my Troy metal detector was a breeze. Strangely, my very first signal turned out to be this Confederate artillery officer's coat button; afterwards, although I had great expectations, not one additional Civil-War-related artifact did I dig. The button was it! I've had similar experiences before, and still I have difficulty explaining why or how. One relic of the War? And no other? Strange.
The button needs cleaning, but I hesitate to work on it since it is delicate and I can do more harm than good. I did clean a bit on the reverse, enough to verify that it was produced by the firm of E. M. Lewis & Co. of Richmond, VA. Further, it's identified as Tice's CSA240A1, 23MM diameter (Albert's CS116). It's a great find that looks good in my collection.
