Civil War brass eating plate recovered in the 1990s at the famous Nashville Dig

Recently I was able to acquire several artifacts directly from the digger that were from the famous “Nashville Dig” that occurred during the 1990s in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. This is a soldier’s brass eating plate, which are seldom recovered, it has an 8 ½” diameter. I have one in my book “The Civil War Soldier – His Personal Items” – it was dug at the Antietam Battlefield (see pictures).

In the 1990s during the construction of the Titan’s Nissan Stadium in downtown Nashville, a very large area was discovered as part of the Union occupation trash dump. The amount of the artifacts found was immense, with boots, brass Union buckles, eating utensils, eating plates, brogans, pistol holsters, cartridge boxes, and even part of a Confederate coat with KMI buttons still on it.

On February 23, 1862, the Confederate army surrendered Nashville to Union forces, the first Southern state capital to fall to the enemy. Stunned civilians watched from the banks of the Cumberland River as Union soldiers marched into Nashville and began setting up camp on the grounds of the State Capitol Building.

As you can see in the pictures, this relic is in dug condition, being underground for almost 150 years, however it is in pretty solid condition. The uniqueness of this piece is in its history, being part from the time of the first major southern city to be occupied by the North.