It took a lot of research to find this yankee pontoon bridge location. I found an obscure reference to it in a book about canoeing the Rappahanock River. The period picture from the National Archives describes it as a "pontoon bridge on Bull Run". To my knowledge, there were no pontoon bridges ever built on the Bull Run. This spot is located on a large private farm and getting permission to relic hunt took some more research and luck to boot. This area has been hunted pretty throughly thru the years but they can't find it all.
This photograph was taken in October 1862.
I tried to stand in the same spot the Civil War photographer did while taking this picture.
This is looking away from the pontoon site. In an entry in the Official Records the officer talks about the Confederates coming down on them from the high ground and attacking. They had quite a little skirmish in the area of this photo. The high ground he was speaking of is the hill on the left, I believe.
The sandy soil in this area is a pleasure to dig and it seems to protect the relics. Here are several of the better items I have found around this site. We have really only scratched the surface here, hunting season came in before we could spend too much time scouting.
