Battlefield Excavated Soldier's eating utensils (SOLD)

This is a great grouping being offered, it is an excavated Civil War soldier’s spoon, fork and homemade pot-hook. These three pieces were recovered by Mr. Elton Strong from the Trevilian Station Battlefield.

The Battle of Trevilian Station, Virginia was fought on June 11-12, 1864 and was the largest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War. In June 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to make a raid along the Virginia Central Railroad to destroy the road at the crucial junction town of Gordonsville. Afterwards he would march to Charlottesville, destroy the supply depot there, and rendezvous with the army of Maj. Gen. David Hunter. The combined force would then march east, where it would join the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg.

Sheridan marched on June 7, taking two divisions of cavalry and four batteries of horse artillery, about 9,000 men. Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, leading two divisions of Confederate cavalry pursued the next day utilizing shorter, interior routes of march. Along with the division of Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, they would cross Sheridan's route of march on June 10th at Trevilian Station, a stop on the Virginia Central, six miles west of Louisa and six miles southeast of Gordonsville. The battle, ranging over 7,000 acres, raged for two days.

Elton Strong hunted the battlefield for over thirty years and accumulated what was almost certainly the largest single collection of Trevilian Station relics. He opened a small museum to display his relics. He was also a well-known authority on the battle and the battlefield. Although these artifacts were rusted, they have been coated with a varnish and are now solid and smooth. The grouping comes in the 8 1/2" x 6 1/2" glass-top display case pictured. In my book "The Civil War Soldier - His Personal Items", I go into detail about the soldiers eating habits and the utensils they used.