I should gather all the unfinished items that I have found in my 4000 dives at Selma. That would be at least 10,000 dives if we can include my sons and the other divers that I took with me. Luckily I had learned how to preserve iron so the relics that I preserved for our group of divers have survived. There were several other early divers that found some iron relics but they let them fall apart and only photos are left. The written records from Selma are not any where near complete and that is why the iron relics must speak for themselves. Selma was totally destroyed in Wilson's Raid and papers didn't survive. Augusta was never destroyed and records did survive. I have unfinished, bayonets, swords,fuzes, lockplates, spur parts, CS belt buckles, horse bits, rifle hammers and many other castings. Maybe I will do an article for one of the magazines myself so I can let Selma tell her own story and not be confused by the written
" truth". The important thing to remember about why Selma and surrounding areas of central Alabama is so important is that this is where the iron was made. By the last few years of the war Alabama produced more iron than all other CS states combined and there was no good way to send this iron east. Selma was the protected area whereas Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee where threatened or occupied by yankees. Why would Alabama send iron to other areas when Selma could do it all and be protected.
