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Author Topic: Korea 1871  (Read 12270 times)

bluelake

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Korea 1871
« on: October 07, 2012, 04:11:50 AM »
This is my first post on this board.  After reading through many of the threads, I'm sorry I didn't find this place before!

Although I am an American, I have lived and worked in Korea for about a quarter-century.  During that time, I became very involved in historical research and even completed my master and doctorate degrees in Korean studies, with emphasis on history.  My main subject of research is the first US military action in Korea, in 1871 (You can visit my site (http://www.shinmiyangyo.org) for more info).  I have been researching it for about 17 years and have had a lot of hands-on experience with it, having done extensive field research along the US "line of march". 

Together with my wife and son, along with a close colleague of mine, we have collected a great quantity of relics from the battle; they have been photographed, GPSed, etc., to preserve the history as much as possible.  We are a bit racing against the clock, as modern "progress" has been eating up the historical areas--without regard to the history below--with much of it being lost. 

The US Navy in 1871 was, essentially, the same as the US Navy during the ACW.  For the most part, the uniforms, weapons, and accoutrements were the same.  Some of the things we found were quite exciting, starting with small arms ammunition: .50-45 cal. Remington rolling block carbine (and pistol) brass and even whole cartridges, .577 cal. minie balls, .69 cal. minie balls, and even .38 cal. rounds from a revolver conversion cylinder; also, many .45 cal. Korean matchlock musket balls were recovered.  We also found many fragments from 12-pdr. Dahlgren boat howitzer rounds (shell and case); my colleague even found an intact 3" Schenkl shell (He turned it over to the Korean Army Museum; they deactivated it and it is now in their exhibit).  Just a couple weeks ago, he found a below-ground-exploded 4.5" Schenkl, with all the fragments and fuse together, which he is now restoring.  Eventually, when the museum on the island where the action happened (Ganghwa Island) has a suitable exhibit, many of the relics will be donated to them. 

As time permits, I will post some photos in the appropriate forums.


Thomas



emike123

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2012, 04:31:57 AM »
Welcome aboard, Thomas.

I believe Col. Biemick is familiar with that site from the time he was stationed in Korea and he made some interesting recoveries there.  Although he is a member of this forum, he is more of a lurker than an active poster, but you can reach him via eMail through the forum.

bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2012, 06:02:34 AM »
Thanks for the info.  I found what I believe to be his e-mail address and sent him a message.  I look forward to hearing from him.  :)

One thing that's interesting is that few people--including Korean historical scholars--know the whole story of the 1871 battle.  Most only know the popular stories regarding the three main fortresses that were captured by US forces and not what happened in-between (and even some of the popular stories are actually different from what people think they know).  A great amount of the battle happened between the fortresses.  For example, there is one village where a lot of action happened, but even the present-day villagers were unaware until my colleague and I talked with them; since our first visit there a long time ago, we have become a relatively common sight in the hills surrounding the village. 

With luck, my doctoral dissertation on the subject will be published by the end of the year.  It's quite lengthy, but with a lot of information about what happened.  Still, I'm always looking for new information in various areas (which is why I've been working on the dissertation for so long).


ETEX

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2012, 01:53:04 PM »
Welcome aboard Thomas and look forward to your participation.

CarlS

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2012, 05:21:12 PM »
Thanks for the very interesting posting.  I was not aware of such action after the Civil War.  I enjoyed visiting your web site to learn more and hope to hear more from you as you join in our discussions.  Welcome!
Best,
Carl

bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2012, 09:23:46 PM »
Let me share a few of our finds; there have been many, but these are a few.  The first one is a comparison of the original .50-45 cartridge, brass from 1871 and ones I prepared. 



bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2012, 09:24:39 PM »
The next one is of me holding the intact Schenkl 3" my colleague found. 

bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2012, 09:25:43 PM »
The next is the in-ground-exploded 4.5" Schenkl my colleague found. 

bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2012, 09:28:40 PM »
.577 and .69 minie balls.



bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2012, 09:31:59 PM »
My son holding a 1.05" lead canister shot he found.

acwbullets

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2012, 10:08:22 PM »
Great post. I like those Indian War benet primed cartridges. Some of them should be iron primed so if you put a magnet on the bottom some of them will stick.

bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2012, 10:29:19 PM »
An interesting thing about the RRB cartridges is, most of them were not drops, but duds (primer was hit).  The after action report by Capt. McLane Tilton (USMC) explains that there was a lot of defective ammo among those packed in cardboard boxes (~50%), but none failed among those packed in wood boxes. 

A bit of irony is that only sailors used the .50-45 RRB carbines, while marines used .577 Springfields and .69 Whitneyville Plymouths.  Capt. Tilton was on the board that approved the RRB for naval use, but was denied any for his marines.  He referred to the muzzleloaders his men had to use as "muzzle fuzzles".  It was important, however, for my research that sailors and marines had clearly different arms; my colleague and I were able to ascertain exact troop positions dependent upon relics found: .50-45 cartridges/brass was Navy and .577/.69 drops were Marines. 



bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #12 on: October 08, 2012, 07:18:28 PM »
Here is a safety cap (from a 5 second fuse) I found where a US artillery battery was located:

 

CarlS

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #13 on: October 08, 2012, 10:57:52 PM »
BlueLake,

Nice safety cap.  I'm surprised we don't see more of these found and for sale at shows.

An unrelated question, what are the laws for metal detecting like in Korea?  Do you need permits or do you get access via your archeological efforts?  Are people pretty open to you hunting ?

Thanks for sharing your experience.  It's a nice discussion variety.
Best,
Carl

bluelake

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Re: Korea 1871
« Reply #14 on: October 09, 2012, 04:48:16 AM »
Carl,

MDing in Korea is kind of a gray area.  Somewhere in the law books, there is something regarding anything below ground belongs to the gov't, or some such wording, but I don't think there is anything particular against MDing.  In my and my colleague's cases, we aren't treasure hunters--and the people in the areas we search know that (and many even try to help)--so we don't consider the relics necessarily our personal property; we are just caretakers until suitable exhibits are established.  That's not to say we will give everything away; I use the relics in my possession for educational purposes--I teach Korean history in a Korean university and the show-and-tell items add a lot to it.  Actually, most of our relics would have been tossed away by Koreans if they found them; anything less than a couple-hundred years old here is considered modern and not of particular interest by most Koreans (and most wouldn't realize their significance anyway).  I have sometimes joked that I'm just picking up litter Americans left here 141 years ago  ;)

The sad thing is, in the next five to ten years, I believe most of the 1871 historical areas will be gone--dug up to put in factories and houses (I've seen it happen before my eyes).  I am racing against the clock to preserve it before then.


Thomas