Fort Amanda - Below the Ground (Blog #2)

"Wayne's Legion Research Group"

 Artifacts recovered at the Amanda site including a very interesting and mysterious discovery

 

       A Cartridge

   

         We know from Ensign Schillinger's journal that the men at Fort Amanda spent much of their time making cartridges (bullets of the day).   Cartridges were basically a rolledup paper tube with a lead ball in one end and the other end of the tube filled with gunpowder (see pic above).  When ready for use, the end with the powder was either torn off or chewed off and the gunpowder dumped down the barrel of a musket.  The lead ball was then inserted in the barrel and pushed down with a ramrod with the paper serving as wadding).  Schillinger's journal tells us that if a man had no teeth or very few teeth, he could be excluded from military servive.  

        The lead or musket balls were made by pouring molten lead into a mold.  The mold would then be opened and the "sprue" waste, cut off.  

  

                 Ball Mold                                        Cartridge Box

     The finished cartridges were placed in a cartridge box worn on the soldiers belt.   

 A few days ago I asked Greg why there would be so many musket balls and shot in such a small area.   His answer was: 

Likely periodic and singular drops, Dave. Also, all of those deformed buckshots (with offset halves) were most likely "dumped" right after being seen. I used to be surprised by how many perfectly good lead balls were being left behind, but it is like that in every military and Indian site I've ever hunted, so folks were just incredibly wasteful when it came to lead.

Artifacts Found To Date

 

                                                     Greg Shipleys notes

        Here are the recoveries made during our two day Phase1 investigation, on Nov 3rd & 4th (2023). I'm still working on preserving the iron artifacts, which are mainly harness buckles and hand-forged nails, but all of the lead, brass, pewter, and non metallic artifacts have been cleaned and cataloged, now. I wanted to begin excavations on this new site in an area that David Johnson's research and published information indicated was in close proximity to where the US military fort had stood, so that was the reasoning for our initial 40'x40' farm field grid units being established where they were.

        Four of the eight total Phase1 units were opened and completed, with five fire pit/trash midden features being located, excavated, and GPS position tagged. Being just outside of the Ft Amanda stockade area, we encountered a steady scatter of discarded and/or lost fort period materials, as shown in these photos. As this Auglaize County outpost was constructed by KY militia and, later on, manned by Ohio militia, the 30 button recoveries are civilian clothing types: flat brass w/ soldered on eyelets, molded and lathe turned tombacs w/ brass eyelets, and a couple of partial cast pewter types. Also, 2 brass cuff-link buttons were recovered, with one example bearing an "A" or "H" monogram. Also, 3 gunflints (2 prismoidal & 1 spall), 3 brass tacks, 5 small pieces of Indian trade silver, several sheet brass scraps, and fragments of English china and bottle glass (from the pit features) + the complete forged-iron "make do" table fork, all being representative examples of what the militia soldiers manning Ft Amanda had with them, while stationed at this Ohio frontier outpost. 

        Along with masses of burnt and marrowed animal bones, from daily garrison meals, which we recovered from the 5 sub plow-zone features, the most prolific period artifact type recovered during our investigation was "lead". 578 total lead artifacts were recovered and cataloged during our two day dig project: lead musket and rifle balls (.62 caliber down to .36 caliber) = 83, buckshots (many with offset mold cavity alignment deforms) = 224, and lead scraps (including cut mold sprues, slag, molten drips, etc) = 271. 

        Note: the 1780 Spanish silver 1Reale coin and an 1843 Large Cent (from three decades after the fort period) recoveries are not pictured in this relics composite, as they were found outside of grid units 1, 3, 4, & 5. A few lead recoveries were detected north the outside of our excavated area, during a detecting recon for future excavations planning purposes, and these items are cataloged as " N" (for north of our grid units).     

        Obviously, this much material being recovered from plowed ground and on a site that has seen much surface hunting and some metal detecting activities done, is an indication that there is tremendous opportunity to locate more War of 1812 era materials and to locate important deep features related to the Ft Amanda structure and outlying buildings. This initial activity was a success and, thanks to the property owner, Mr David Kriegel, and historian/author, Mr David Johnson, I'm excited with this new opportunity to investigate another Ohio frontier era site, which has been neglected for far too long.

The Fort's Footprint ?

NOTE:  If you're wondering why the outline of the fort looks like it extends into the adjacent field, read my blog at: https://fortamanda1812.blogspot.com/search?q=footprint.  It presents my proposal that the northwest wall of the fort was actually 132 feet into the adjacent field and included  5th blockhouse.     

How Did a Spanish Coin End Up at Fort Amanda?

Greg Shipley's Notes

After Doug Penhorwood had finished dozing our Fort Amanda site excavation area back in and our group members had handworked everything, nice and level, we did some field surface metal detecting in areas I'll want to excavate, next year. One very good detector signal ended up being this 1780 Spanish silver 1Reale coin, which I dug from only six inches of depth in the disturbed plow-zone layer of this farm field. Both sides of this 243 year old coin exhibit scars from being churned around by agricultural tillage activities but it is always a thrill to find a coin, from Spain's colonial period, on an Ohio historical site. This is the first fort period coin to be recovered during our Wayne's Legion Research Group activities on this War of 1812 site but, hopefully, more will come to light, during future excavations, here

 

The Big Question

 

How did a 1780 Spanish coin endup at an 1812 military fort ?  I have a theory, one  if proven correct could add a whole new chapter to the Fort Amanda story.  Stay tuned for Blog #3