Relic hunter unites Civil War ring
with soldier’s Pennsylvania relatives

After some 200 miles and nearly 150 years, a Civil War soldier’s ring finally has made the long journey home.

In early April, relic hunter John Blue reunited the artifact he discovered in Fredericksburg, Va., in 2005 with distant cousins of the ring’s owner in Reading, Pa.

Blue presented the jewelry to Ernie Schlegel, a relative of Union soldier Levi Schlegel, at a ceremony at Levi Schlegel’s gravesite in Reading.

Blue found the ring while hunting at a construction site with a metal detector – an activity he’s been doing for about 30 years. As a Civil War enthusiast, he normally finds bullets and buckles, but rings are a rare discovery.

When the glinting token caught his eye, Blue found it to be silver and on the outside of the band was a name: Levi Schlegel. The soldier’s unit was also engraved – “Co. G., 198th P.V.,” for Pennsylvania Volunteers – although one of the numbers was faded.

However, he was able to confirm Levi Schlegel’s identity in a database.

Unsure of how to track down Schlegel’s descendants, Blue tucked the ring away. The story could have ended there, but the history behind the band continued to haunt him.

Recently, with the help of a genealogist, Blue traced Levi Schlegel’s origins to Berks County, Pa., where the unit recruited soldiers. The local library was the obvious place for info – and it turned out Ernie Schlegel sat on the library’s Board of Trustees.

He also studied his family’s lineage, and discovered that he is related to a Levi Schlegel – his sixth cousin, four times removed.

Levi Schlegel was drafted in November 1862 in Pennsylvania and joined the G Company headed for Petersburg, Va., two years later. He was there when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Va.

Levi Schlegel, a carpenter, had 11 children with his wife. He died at the age of 91 in 1932.

It’s likely he simply dropped the ring while he was camped in Virginia.

Blue said the identification ring is probably worth about $1,500 and is in much better condition than similar ones. ID rings range in price depending on what the soldier did, Blue added. Jewelry of more prominent Civil War soldiers can be worth as much as $3,500.