Unlikely pair search for lost Civil War relics

At first, Robert Compton was more than a little apprehensive about spending two days of quality time with a country music icon like Hank Williams Jr. But that nervousness went away quickly.

“He was just a regular guy,” Compton said, “and we have a lot of things in common.”

Like spent bullets, cannonball shards and other Civil War relics. And Troy Galloway, who runs a Dallas-based metal detector business.

“It was Troy who got us together,” said Compton, who works for the City of Lynchburg utilities department. “Hank and I had both bought from him, and he suggested to me that I ought to invite Hank up on a hunt.”

Williams, who has been searching for relics since 1963 (“The year I was born,” Compton said), jumped at the chance. Virginia was, after all, the epicenter of the War Between the States.

“I don’t think he (Williams) had ever done this in Virginia before,” Compton said. “I understand that most of his hunting has been in Tennessee.”

Compton helps organize a statewide relic hunt each March, and Williams flew up to Virginia two days early for a little private historic sleuthing.

“He has his own plane,” said Compton, “and a chauffeur drove him over to Burkeville from Norfolk.”

Then, there was the caterer who brought Williams and Compton lunch in the field, and a friend of Williams who helped him dig holes.

“He really seemed to enjoy himself,” Compton recalled. “Of course, it helps that he’s rich.”

Williams wore a shirt with “Hank Jr.” stitched over the breast pocket and a large ring inscribed with “Bocephus,” his nickname.

“It wasn’t like he was trying to hide or anything,” Compton said. “Everybody knew who he was, and he got his picture taken with all the landowners and their families.”

Compton and Williams found enough items to satisfy both, albeit nothing extraordinary. As one of the most respected collectors in the Southeast, Compton has developed high standards.

“There’s still a lot of stuff out there,” he said. “Some of it might be five inches deep, some of it may be a lot deeper if it’s been plowed under.”

He lives surrounded by the Civil War in the basement of his parents’ house in Fairview Heights, and he can tell you when and where he acquired virtually all of the thousands of items. One box is lined with 1,000 mini-balls, another holds several intact cannonballs. He has a rotted scrap of boot with a Confederate spur attached, a Confederate knapsack in good condition, and a host of buttons and uniform decorations. A child’s little red wagon is filled to the brim with spent ammunition.

“I guess the best thing we found on that last trip was a button with the name of the school Robert E. Lee attended,” he said.

Since it was found along the route of Lee’s Retreat in Appomattox County, it could even have belonged to the legendary gray-bearded general.

“That would be nice,” Compton said, “but there’s no real way of telling.”

Compton’s souvenirs also include a stack of relic collecting magazines, several with his photo on the cover.

“It was a friend of mine, Ken Edwards, who got me started in this,” Compton said. “Him and his father. It gets to be kind of addictive.”

His first metal detector came from Sears. Now, he has several. Generally, he walks through an area known to be the site of conflict during the Civil War and waits until his machine begins chirping. Then, he digs.

“I’ve found all kinds of things, not just from the Civil War,” he said. “One was a 1925 ring from Lynchburg High School, and I actually got it back to the owner, a lady named Virginia Louise Baldwin.”

A purist, Compton has no intention of selling any of his collection, although he occasionally gives things away. Nor does he ever venture onto eBay.

“It’s not for the money,” he said. “It’s just for the satisfaction. For the hunt.”