Relic Hunters Help Separate Trash from Civil War Treasure

Let’s say your dog has just dug up a curious lump of metal in the backyard and you’re wondering whether it’s a degraded tin can or a valuable piece of Civil War memorabilia. The Northern Virginia Relic Hunters Association may just be able to answer that question. 

The NVRHA is the oldest Civil War relic-hunters group in the nation, getting its start at a February 1972 meeting inside the Centreville volunteer fire station, said Frank Davido, of Clifton, group president. Thirty-two people attended the first meeting and the club has grown to about 200 today. 

“We want to educate the public about the importance of relic hunting,” Davido said, “history is all around us.” 

It’s fitting that the club launched in Centreville, occupied by both Union and Confederate forces during the war and home to at least seven massive Confederate-built forts at the present location of where Routes 28 and 29 cross. The forts are long gone, but are remembered with the opening of a new museum, , in the Historic Centreville Park near the forts’ foundations. 

NVRHA was organized to promote the study and preservation of the Civil War through the location and preservation of military and related historical artifacts. The group meets the first Tuesday of every month at the National Rifle Association headquarters (11250 Waples Mill Rd.).

For a long time a rift existed between the relic-hunters and traditional archeologists, who considered the group unschooled amateurs. The fissure has been on the mend as the relic hunters have gotten better at collecting and the archeologists have come to respect what the hunters have been trying to do, Davido said. They are an eclectic group, but not unschooled. Davido, for example, in an environmental investigator for the EPA.  

“We’ve had club members working right alongside archeologists, helping them dig at sites and uncover stuff,” Davido said. 

It’s probably unlikely that many of the historic memorabilia unearthed over the last 20 years would have been found without relic-hunters, who scour fields with a sharp pair of eyes, expensive metal-detectors and hand-held garden tools. 

“We look at places that they (archeologists) would never go or would completely overlook,” said club member Mark Semerad, of Warrenton. “They look at stuff and think it’s trash and we are able to uncover some treasures.” 

Semerad is proudest of his best find, an intact 3-inch Confederate Reed artillery shell he eyeballed while sliding down a ravine in a rural part of Fairfax County last year. Such unexploded shells are extremely rare and have become almost impossible to find in Northern Virginia, Semerad said. 

In fact, its’ becoming increasingly difficult to find relics in the area after the hunters have successfully combed through local back yards and fields, Davido said. Finds of Confederate items, which are intensely sought after, have almost disappeared. However, hunters are returning to old treasure fields to look again, this time for memorabilia left behind by Northern troops, Davido said. 

“It used to be that everybody wanted Confederate items, because they were so rare,” Davido said. “Now, some folks are going back to their old spots and looking for anything they can find, including Union material.” 

Anyone who does uncover a suspected relic is invited to attend the group meeting and have members evaluate it, Davido said. However, don’t wash it first or try to shine it up. The coating, or patina, on an artifact – like an old Civil War lead bullet – is important to retain, he said. 

“We really want to help the public understand what we do and the importance of collecting these items,” he said.