Unexpected civil war find

MADigger87

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Joined
Jul 20, 2022
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MA
Did some digging near a main road thats been around since at least the 1700s and happened to find this canteen cap with “PATENT APR 2 1861” on it. I believe this would have been dropped by the 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, which had members from my hometown where I found the cap. It appears to also have the spout still attached to it.

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This link has pics and info relating to an identical canteen cap: https://historical.ha.com/itm/milit...ive-tarred/a/6015-57408.s#auction-description

If anyone has any additional info on this I would be very interested in learning more about it. Also curious if anyone has any ideas how or why the spout came to be crushed and separated from the canteen itself
 
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Very cool find. I actually have a mass volunteer button dug in Virginia! I think over time the spouts came loose. I have one without a cap. Just a weak point in old construction I would guess.
 
Very cool find. I actually have a mass volunteer button dug in Virginia! I think over time the spouts came loose. I have one without a cap. Just a weak point in old construction I would guess.

Wow, thats awesome I might even buy one of those buttons on Ebay, unless I find one tomorrow when I go back to look for the canteen lol
 
Great find!! I've dug and have seen many canteen parts dug over the years but this is a first, must be pretty rare. The canteen could have been decommissioned and destroyed because of disease and such, or simply the tin drum degraded and the top separated. It's very rare these days to find the tin drum intact, but can happen in the right soil conditions, which I found out in the spring, good luck hope you find yours..
 
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Great find!! I've dug and have seen many canteen parts dug over the years but this is a first, must be pretty rare. The canteen could have been decommissioned and destroyed because of disease and such, or simply the tin drum degraded and the top separated. It's very rare these days to find the tin drum intact, but can happen in the right soil conditions, which I found out in the spring, good luck hope you find yours..

Thanks for the additional info. I did a lot of Google searching and could only find that one link that I posted above. And sadly I didnt find anything else when I went back and searched that area again yesterday. Makes me wonder if the cap was just randomly tossed into the woods by someone traveling on the main road
 
"Makes me wonder if the cap was just randomly tossed into the woods by someone traveling on the main road"

Likely not since it appears the spout is still connected with the cap. Something the Soldiers practiced with their canteens was to mark the spout with their initials, so there still could be a lil surprise to your find under that cap that could tie in with a 6th Mass Soldier.
 
Nice find there! I always get excited when i dig something old out of the ground that has some writing or numbers on it!
 
Welcome from Boston, MAdigger. Didn’t see an introduction note from you in the usual place (General Hobby Discussion) so thought I’d say hi and welcome here on one of your posts.

Jim
 
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