Adventures In Our Backyard An Old Civil War Campsite…

These shoes tell so many stories of the last 2 years. My physical therapist sent me to a place, to get the right fit and pair. First, they cushioned my knees and kept me standing straight as I walked long miles working on health, preparing to donate bone marrow to my brother if he needed it in 2020. He did not! After they wore out as walking shoes, they became my trusty garden shoes and have helped me dig, shovel, and broadfork our tiny slice of land to put in blueberry hill, the fruit tree and cherry guilds, the new superfood berry patch and every other thing I do outside that requires shoes. They are caked with Tennessee red clay, often covered with whatever project I am working on and there have been dozens just this summer! Today, I think they helped me find a Civil War artillery shell in my own backyard!

Old timers tell us we live on an old Civil War campground. Two of the most definitive battles of the Civil War were fought within ten miles of our home. A man in his late 90’s would stop by our garage sales when we first moved in and tell us how as kids they would roam our subdivision, which was a horse farm, and they would find bullets and artifacts.

I am not completely sure, but when I saw it, even covered in Tennessee red clay and embedded into a rock, the lines were CLEARLY man made and it looked like an oval shaped artillery shell of some kind! Need to check it out more! And yes, we were Civil War living historians for years acting out the Civil War and have tromped though dozens of battlefields and I have a keen eye for history!!

We were out in the back, cleaning the back pine trees up. We had dumped a ton of dirt as we dug the fruit tree lines back in the pinesto fix some erosion! We needed to smooth and level it out, cover the roots without disturbing the trees and make it even so it could be mowed. As I bagged up weeds, there it was on the last bag!!’ One side looks like a rock, the other is different and it looks like artillery! I knew it was something special!