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Nearly every day, on one of America’s Civil War battlefields, some tangible bit of history is erased. Relic hunters were at work, unearthing the metallic evidence of warfare.
That’s due to legal loopholes and the fact that most battlefield acreage has not been preserved.
In Virginia, though, a proposal to discourage metal detecting on preserved battlefield land is gaining traction in the General Assembly.
On Friday, the House of Delegates voted 100-0 to approve a bill by Del. Chris Runion, R-Rockingham, to make it a Class 1 misdemeanor to disturb, damage or remove “any object of antiquity” on battlefields owned or held in easement by a private preservation group.
Relic hunting on state-owned battlefields, such as New Market, Sailor’s Creek and High Bridge, is illegal. Ditto for Civil War sites preserved by the National Park Service.
But no such protection applies to land preserved by nonprofits, such as the American Battlefield trust, Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and Richmond Battlefields Association.
Should Runion’s bill become law, it would plug a hole in the Virginia Antiquities Act, said Keven Walker, CEO of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
“This legislation would create a legal deterrent to illegal relic hunting and disturbance of archaeological sites on battlefield land owned by nonprofits such as ours,” Walker said in an interview Friday. “Battlefield preservation is a public-private partnership, really. A lot of the work is done by private entities working with state and federal agencies. And their land isn’t afforded the same protection under Virginia law. Looting and unauthorized disturbance of archaeological sites in Virginia happens on a fairly regular basis.”
Hence, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation made fixing the law its top legislative priority this year, he said. The foundation protects nearly 6,000 acres in the eight-county Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District.
The House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Del. Kenneth Plum, D-Fairfax, held a hearing Wednesday on Runion’s bill, via Zoom.
Walker, Virginia historian Clark B. Hall and American Battlefield Trust President David Duncan were among those who testified or shared statements with Plum’s committee.
Hall, who lives in Culpeper County, heartily applauded legislators for trying to make it illegal to loot artifacts on battlefield acreage owned or preserved by private, nonprofit groups.
“I am out on the privately-owned Brandy Station battlefield most every week, if not several times a week, and I often observe the holes that relic hunters have dug (at night). They are like daggers in my heart,” Hall said in an interview. “I know—probably better than most—that soldiers, blue and gray, still rest beneath that hallowed soil.”
“There is no question that when we stroll on battlefields, we are also walking in sacred cemeteries,” he said. “Scores of soldiers remain buried today at Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Kelly’s Ford, Hansbrough’s Ridge and Freeman’s Ford, just to name a few Culpeper battle venues.”
Duncan, president of the nation’s largest battlefield preservation group, contributed electronically submitted testimony to the discussion.
“Thousands of acres across the Commonwealth (are) exposed to potentially destructive looting,” Duncan wrote the panel. “Without this HB 2311, archaeological resources that provide important clues to Virginia’s tumultuous past could be lost to history or be irreparably harmed.
“Preserved battlefields protect open space, serve as ‘outdoor classrooms,’ and are economic engines for local economies, providing jobs and tourism dollars, and generating revenues for state and municipal government coffers,” he continued. “These battlefields are also living memorials to the soldiers who once struggled there. The artifacts that remain beneath these hallowed grounds are equally worthy of preservation and, with advances in ground-penetrating radar and related technology, can bring to life forgotten stories and solve century-old mysteries.”
Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, also testified at the committee meeting.
Langan said her agency had no opinion on Runion’s bill.
But in her testimony, she “confirmed that unauthorized digging is indeed a problem,” Langan said Friday via a spokesman.
The committee voted 21-0 to approve the measure. Walker particularly thanked Dels. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington; Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock; and Tony Wilt, R-Harrisonburg, for supporting Runion’s bill.
After Friday’s unanimous vote by the full House, HB2311 was referred to the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee for consideration. Sen. Chapman Peterson, D-Fairfax, chairs the committee.
Countless times, historical questions cannot be answered through documents or first-person descriptions, Walker said. Accounts may be confusing or conflicting. But answers can come through archaeology.
One can tell by the presence of bullets buried in the soil where a regiment’s battle line stopped during a battle and what kind of troops or what units from what state were there, Walker said.
“If that record isn’t disturbed, from what the soldiers left behind, we can pinpoint those locations and get a better picture of what occurred during the battle,” he said. “It’s not that different than using forensics information to learn about a crime.”
For example, Walker noted, archaeologists who teamed up with relic hunters in Montana gleaned in-situ data that transformed historians’ understanding of what happened during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in which Gen. George Armstrong Custer perished.
“Their work completely changed how we understand that battle and dispelled some myths surrounding it,” he said.
Virginia archaeologist Taft Kiser has worked with relic hunters to survey historical sites, and values their skills and interest in history.
But he takes a dim view of many hobbyists who metal detect at night or without asking property owners.
“If you don’t have permission and don’t own the land, it’s theft,” said Kiser, who has been investigating historic sites across the commonwealth since 1984. “Most people don’t even know what is being taken off their land.”
“You can erase sites by taking stuff,” he continued. “For instance, one of the most desirable things is a soldier’s metal ID tag. It may be the only proof that person and that soldier’s unit was there, the entire record. So if you dig it up, you’re removing part of the story, you are erasing history.”
“Battles are really fast, intense things and they don’t leave a lot of traces. They’re ephemeral,” Kiser said. “What they leave is a scatter of metal in the ground. Soldiers are dropping stuff as they go, running and moving. So if you collect that material, and don’t record it, that’s gone. That’s the history of the men who were fighting. You can literally erase them.”
Less than 20 percent of Virginia’s historically significant battlefield land has been preserved.
The American Battlefield Trust owns nearly 9,000 acres in the state, out of 27,000 acres it has helped preserve.
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That’s due to legal loopholes and the fact that most battlefield acreage has not been preserved.
In Virginia, though, a proposal to discourage metal detecting on preserved battlefield land is gaining traction in the General Assembly.
On Friday, the House of Delegates voted 100-0 to approve a bill by Del. Chris Runion, R-Rockingham, to make it a Class 1 misdemeanor to disturb, damage or remove “any object of antiquity” on battlefields owned or held in easement by a private preservation group.
Relic hunting on state-owned battlefields, such as New Market, Sailor’s Creek and High Bridge, is illegal. Ditto for Civil War sites preserved by the National Park Service.
But no such protection applies to land preserved by nonprofits, such as the American Battlefield trust, Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and Richmond Battlefields Association.
Should Runion’s bill become law, it would plug a hole in the Virginia Antiquities Act, said Keven Walker, CEO of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
“This legislation would create a legal deterrent to illegal relic hunting and disturbance of archaeological sites on battlefield land owned by nonprofits such as ours,” Walker said in an interview Friday. “Battlefield preservation is a public-private partnership, really. A lot of the work is done by private entities working with state and federal agencies. And their land isn’t afforded the same protection under Virginia law. Looting and unauthorized disturbance of archaeological sites in Virginia happens on a fairly regular basis.”
Hence, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation made fixing the law its top legislative priority this year, he said. The foundation protects nearly 6,000 acres in the eight-county Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District.
The House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Del. Kenneth Plum, D-Fairfax, held a hearing Wednesday on Runion’s bill, via Zoom.
Walker, Virginia historian Clark B. Hall and American Battlefield Trust President David Duncan were among those who testified or shared statements with Plum’s committee.
Hall, who lives in Culpeper County, heartily applauded legislators for trying to make it illegal to loot artifacts on battlefield acreage owned or preserved by private, nonprofit groups.
“I am out on the privately-owned Brandy Station battlefield most every week, if not several times a week, and I often observe the holes that relic hunters have dug (at night). They are like daggers in my heart,” Hall said in an interview. “I know—probably better than most—that soldiers, blue and gray, still rest beneath that hallowed soil.”
“There is no question that when we stroll on battlefields, we are also walking in sacred cemeteries,” he said. “Scores of soldiers remain buried today at Brandy Station, Cedar Mountain, Kelly’s Ford, Hansbrough’s Ridge and Freeman’s Ford, just to name a few Culpeper battle venues.”
Duncan, president of the nation’s largest battlefield preservation group, contributed electronically submitted testimony to the discussion.
“Thousands of acres across the Commonwealth (are) exposed to potentially destructive looting,” Duncan wrote the panel. “Without this HB 2311, archaeological resources that provide important clues to Virginia’s tumultuous past could be lost to history or be irreparably harmed.
“Preserved battlefields protect open space, serve as ‘outdoor classrooms,’ and are economic engines for local economies, providing jobs and tourism dollars, and generating revenues for state and municipal government coffers,” he continued. “These battlefields are also living memorials to the soldiers who once struggled there. The artifacts that remain beneath these hallowed grounds are equally worthy of preservation and, with advances in ground-penetrating radar and related technology, can bring to life forgotten stories and solve century-old mysteries.”
Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, also testified at the committee meeting.
Langan said her agency had no opinion on Runion’s bill.
But in her testimony, she “confirmed that unauthorized digging is indeed a problem,” Langan said Friday via a spokesman.
The committee voted 21-0 to approve the measure. Walker particularly thanked Dels. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington; Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock; and Tony Wilt, R-Harrisonburg, for supporting Runion’s bill.
After Friday’s unanimous vote by the full House, HB2311 was referred to the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee for consideration. Sen. Chapman Peterson, D-Fairfax, chairs the committee.
Countless times, historical questions cannot be answered through documents or first-person descriptions, Walker said. Accounts may be confusing or conflicting. But answers can come through archaeology.
One can tell by the presence of bullets buried in the soil where a regiment’s battle line stopped during a battle and what kind of troops or what units from what state were there, Walker said.
“If that record isn’t disturbed, from what the soldiers left behind, we can pinpoint those locations and get a better picture of what occurred during the battle,” he said. “It’s not that different than using forensics information to learn about a crime.”
For example, Walker noted, archaeologists who teamed up with relic hunters in Montana gleaned in-situ data that transformed historians’ understanding of what happened during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in which Gen. George Armstrong Custer perished.
“Their work completely changed how we understand that battle and dispelled some myths surrounding it,” he said.
Virginia archaeologist Taft Kiser has worked with relic hunters to survey historical sites, and values their skills and interest in history.
But he takes a dim view of many hobbyists who metal detect at night or without asking property owners.
“If you don’t have permission and don’t own the land, it’s theft,” said Kiser, who has been investigating historic sites across the commonwealth since 1984. “Most people don’t even know what is being taken off their land.”
“You can erase sites by taking stuff,” he continued. “For instance, one of the most desirable things is a soldier’s metal ID tag. It may be the only proof that person and that soldier’s unit was there, the entire record. So if you dig it up, you’re removing part of the story, you are erasing history.”
“Battles are really fast, intense things and they don’t leave a lot of traces. They’re ephemeral,” Kiser said. “What they leave is a scatter of metal in the ground. Soldiers are dropping stuff as they go, running and moving. So if you collect that material, and don’t record it, that’s gone. That’s the history of the men who were fighting. You can literally erase them.”
Less than 20 percent of Virginia’s historically significant battlefield land has been preserved.
The American Battlefield Trust owns nearly 9,000 acres in the state, out of 27,000 acres it has helped preserve.
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