Ground dug CLLE

[Surpmil]

"Good people" destroying archeological sites is what they are. No one will ever do for Civil War battlefields what was done for the Little Bighorn because the detectorists have destroyed the evidence.

[gew8805]

Surpmil, I understand what you are saying but what you are saying is not completely true. The sheer volume of sights in existence from the ACW, especially here in Virginia, is staggering and they cover thousands upon thousands of acres in areas that are now being developed and have been since 1865. Sad but true. So where is your righteous indignation when a new parking lot, shopping center, apartment complex, highway, office park, housing development, etc., etc., etc., goes up? I do see where you are coming from, but sights that were once long forgotten are now under threat from development first and diggers are not even a problem to be thought of. As a matter of fact, conscientious diggers are often the ones that have found these sights through hours of grueling research of wartime records, letters of participants and word of mouth from the last of the generations that actually knew people, soldiers and civilians, that were there. They often are the leaders of small, local groups that make attempts to preserve what is actually left. I could give you dozens of examples but that discussion has no place here.