Privies

[JohnRoy]

Way back in the woods I found 8-9 prives (still uncovered) near an old road and off of a train track. There is no road access now. I'm going back there with a well-known bottle collector this Friday. The settlement goes back to the early part of the 19th century. I'm trying to not get overly excited yet until I hear glass this weekend. My friend has a 10 foot probe. I guess whenever the buildings were razed, the privy holes were just left as is. It seems as though that there is some dirt within the holes (plus a lot of leaves), and my probe does go down into them quite a bit, but I was a little nervous about going down into one without someone being there with me; I hung onto a tall tree that had grown out from the side of the privy. I could not believe my eyes! I have read an account recently of somone almost falling down a well hole, so that is why I did not go down into one without someone there with me. These holes are about 7 feet in length, and 2-3 feet wide. I plan to take my camera out there next week. The good news is that I have permission to be on the property, too! That took a lot of time and effort to get.
-John

 

[capsoda]

These holes are about 7 feet in length and 2-3 feet wide.

Hey John, Sounds like military latrines to me. I've never heard of any privy over a slit trench. Take a metal detector with you and be gentle with the probe, alot of the glass items used by the military were very thin.

Good luck and don't for get to take lots of pictures.[]

 

[JohnRoy]

This is what I do know so far:
-the settlement first appeared on a map in 1839;
-the old road is visible if you look hard for it;
-there was a very old house that sat on a hill near here (legend);
-the settlement was in the general vicinity on this side of the Railroad tracks, but a few were on the other side, too;
-and there was a Confederate Regiment that was formed a few miles down the old dirt road at a mill (they were called the Richmond Factory Guards).
I'm not sure if this place had its own unit, too. Maybe this is where they were before they were shipped out.
There were supposed to be a whole town back here in 1839, but so far I've only found these trenches in the ground; I believe that the townsite may be further down the tracks. Across the road sits Ft. Gordon, but I do not know if they trained here during WWII; this site has never been a part of Fort Gordon. I would guess that this was a Confederate Unit given that the Railroad was there that was a direct link to Atlanta. But wouldn't that be a bummer if I find WWII stuff there.
I did order a topographical map from www.novacell.com for this site (circa 1918).
Thanks so much for your input. I'm less excited now, but still curious as to what I will find there.
-John

 

[capsoda]

You should be very excited, it could be a Confederate assembly or hold over area or the same for a Union unit at the end of the war.
If it is just a WW1 or WW2 training area you could still find some very valuable stuff there.

And keep in mind that 150 years ago a town could have been a dozen or so buildings.

 

[card]

Sounds exciting to me. keep us posted with pics and what you do find. []