# Ravenna Glass Works Flask in a Civil War Hut



## XRdsRev (Feb 1, 2011)

Here is a pic of a nice iron pontil Ravenna Glass Works anchor / eagle flask I dug in a Civil War hut site.  this was found in the 1862-63 winter camp of the 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in Stafford County Virginia.


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## digger don (Feb 1, 2011)

This might be a stupid question but what is a hut site? Is it the privy your digging?


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## sweetrelease (Feb 1, 2011)

that is one way cool pic.... i would have flipped if i dug that ,nice !


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## AntiqueMeds (Feb 1, 2011)

> what is a hut site?


 
 in the winter the troops built various styles of camp huts to weather the winters. They were normally dug out in the bottom. Some had chimneys.


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## XRdsRev (Feb 1, 2011)

Not a stupid question.  During the American Civil War 1861-65, the armies usually ceased active large scale combat operations during the winter months.  During this "down time" the troops usually would be assigned areas where each regiment would build concentrations of log huts in which to live in. In essence they built small villages laid out in regular military order.  The huts varied in construction but typically would be about 8 feet wide by 8 feet long with a small fireplace.  Huts usually housed two soldiers and served as their personal home in the camp.  They were responsible for building it and maintaining it.  

 Often in order to provide natural insulation and save on the amount of wood need in construction, the soldiers dug down into the ground (if possible) and built their log structure on top of the hole.  I have seen huts dug down as much as 4 feet into the ground but 18-24 inches seemed to be more common.  

 Since these camps were temporary, after the armies left them, they fell into decay.  Farmers or the natural processes of erosion eventually filled them in.  These are "hut sites" or "hut holes".  For relic hunters they often can provide a bountiful harvest of historic objects when excavated.  They can be very difficult to locate, especially in farm fields.  Like privies they can often be empty or have very little of interest in them.  But on occasion they can be filled with great artifacts and bottles.  In the camps I dug, I estimate that out of every 10 huts dug, 7 had little in them, 2 were decent and 1 was loaded with relics and bottles.   

 Below is a picture of a hut I dug showing the refilling process.


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## AntiqueMeds (Feb 1, 2011)

Did you ever dig any of the Confederate camps up around the Dumfries / Woodbridge area?  Most are destroyed by developments now.


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## JOETHECROW (Feb 1, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  XRdsRev
> 
> Here is a pic of a nice iron pontil Ravenna Glass Works anchor / eagle flask I dug in a Civil War hut site.Â  this was found in the 1862-63 winter camp of the 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in Stafford County Virginia.


 



 Great picture and great bottle~ Congrats!


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## digger don (Feb 1, 2011)

Thanks for the info. With a whole army there you would think there has got to be some privies or trash pits. I would think an army can make alot of trash if they are there for a while. Have you ever found any of them ?


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## VA is for Diggers (Feb 1, 2011)

Reminds me of the Yankee Hut Sites all along Culpeper/Brandy station; About 1 in 20 have the motherlode, while the others only have shards and an occasional bullet, knapsack hook or grommet. Great find!


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## tigue710 (Feb 1, 2011)

Marched to Gettysburg from there, that's just an amazing piece of history to come along with those bottles.  Wonder if that soldier wished he hadnt emptied that flask three weeks earlier...  Very nice finds, thanks for sharing.


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## buzzkutt033 (Feb 2, 2011)

nice glass, great pictures and a super story !!!


 thanx for sharing with us all...........

 jim


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## sandchip (Feb 2, 2011)

Great insitu shot of the flask and the pickle (in the other thread)!


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## RICKJJ59W (Feb 2, 2011)

Awesome piece of history.
  I love seeing pictures of bottles getting sunlight after all these years []


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## Oldihtractor (Feb 2, 2011)

Most likely there were not privys but ditches  built in long rectangular shape to use as a trash and outhouse type pit..  when found they seem to produce some good finds also..

 A good place to learn about such types of digs is  american digger magazine 

 link to site   
 http://www.americandigger.com/



> ORIGINAL:  digger don
> 
> Thanks for the info. With a whole army there you would think there has got to be some privies or trash pits. I would think an army can make alot of trash if they are there for a while. Have you ever found any of them ?


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## cowseatmaize (Feb 2, 2011)

I'm gonna throw my congrats to all the finds. The pickle, pot lids and the flask are all awesome. It looks like you're taking it slow too. It sure would stink to get all crazy thinking nothing but dirt. Then crunch, snap, Ouch!
 Great work.


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## beendiggin (Feb 2, 2011)

Really enjoying your posts....keep em coming..and continued good luck on future digs.


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## toddrandolph (Feb 2, 2011)

I always like to see Ravenna bottles, as I live just a few miles from the where the glassworks was located. Great find, I have only found pieces of them. Is it iron pontilled, many of the Ravenna flasks were.


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## XRdsRev (Feb 2, 2011)

AntiqueMeds, I dug a bit around Dumfries in the early1990s but never did really well.  I wasn't that familiar with the camp locations there.  I did dig a couple hundred pounds of huge artillery shell fragments out around Cockpit point on the river before they closed it down to relic hunters.  I still laugh when I think about carrying those heavy things up and down those steep hills to get back to the car.


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## XRdsRev (Feb 2, 2011)

VA is for Diggers - I have dug at Brandy, Coles Hill & Hansborough Ridge.  I thought that rarer bottles came out of those huts but more bottles came out of the Stafford camps I hunted.  The trash trench that the DIV hunters found on Coles Hill was pretty impressive though.  I am sure that most big camps had similar refuse areas but they just never were found....probably too deep.


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## XRdsRev (Feb 2, 2011)

cowseatmaize - thanks for the reply.  Unfortunately I have seen some great bottles destroyed or damaged through carelessness or bad luck.  I saw a guy dig a 1/2 pint Crowleytown mason jar that he left on the side of the hole and the heat of the sun put a 2 inch crack along the base.  I saw another friend of mine dig a Cobalt Harrison's Columbian hockey puck ink and leave it in the sun with the same result.  I put a probe right through a green open pontil embossed medicine once because I was probing too much once I had located a pit.


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## diggerdirect (Feb 2, 2011)

Really cool thread! heres a picture of the 150th Pa camp at Belle Plain, Virginia from one of my books. You can see the rows of these 'huts'. Bet theres several privies on that slope somewheres!  [:-]








 Al


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