Finial Style: Spade Style

Location Housed: Bob Del Buono collection, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia

Measurements: 6" X 5"

Recovery Location: White Oak, Virginia, Union winter camp 1862-1863

Finial Attribution: Unknown

Photograph Attribution: Bob Del Buono

Additional Information: This particular flagstaff finial is one of the most unique flagstaff finials that can be found. I have seen a great deal of the three sizes of the normal spade style finials; however, this style is few and far between.

This finial was ground recovered in 1991 in a fence row by Virginia State Police Master Trooper Ed King, who is now deceased, in what local Civil War detectorist called the "Union Paymasters camp", due to the large number of gold dollar coins located in the area over the years. The camp was located on highway 218 just down the road from the White Oak Church, near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Bob Del Buono purchased the piece from the estate of Trooper King. Due to the large number of Union troops in the area, for such a long period of time, I would think it impossible to know from which regiment the finial came. 

The White Oak Church camp was very active from November 1862 to approximately May or June 1863. The camp was the initial camp of the Army of the Potomac after their defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.  This was also the camp from where Union soldiers were sent on their "Mud March' which was ultimately abandoned. For seven months, the area around White Oak Church saw the area grow with the addition of 20,000 Union soldiers. 

The White Oak Church was a small Baptist Church at the time of the Union encampment. One Union soldier described the church in this manner," a miserable, insignificant structure, dilapidated and steeple less, and seems to have belonged to some former age." It looks, he thought, "Very much like some ancient horse shed and barn that may be seen in some of our less thriving villages."  I might add, maybe had the Union soldier stayed home, he might not have had to suffer seeing such a pitiful site as he describes of the church? The church still stands today as a testament to times past in 1862-1863, while the disparaging Union soldier is now in the ages. 

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Sources:

Bob Del Buono, Images and Information

The Historical Marker Database, White Oak Church

Master Trooper Virginia State Police, Ed King, Deceased. 

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