--- title: "Why grave robbing Confederate Civil War dead is big business" date: "2018-09-25" modified: "2026-09-02" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/true-crime-american-grave-robbers/" categories: - "Civil War" - "History" - "War History" tags: - "Civil War" - "Crime" --- # Why grave robbing Confederate Civil War dead is big business ![grave rob confederates McGavock Cemetery]() *National Cemeteries are probably safe, but private ones like Tennessee's McGavock Cemetery are prime targets.* In April 2013, an old iron casket was found dug up and pulled out of a desecrated gravesite, its contents spilled all over the Old Church Cemetery near Waynesboro, Ga. A man, later found to be [Ralph "Bubba" Hillis](), along with accomplice Jerry Atkinson, had taken to digging up graves in the cemetery. Why target the little Old Church Cemetery near Waynesboro? Because it dates to 1758 and holds the remains of Revolutionary War soldiers as well as those of Confederate troops from the Civil War—and old war relics are big business. **Also Read: [The Civil War created the modern American funeral industry]()** Dealers and auction houses say Confederate-attributed items are the most valuable relics when it comes to Civil War militaria, and officer's swords and Confederate handguns move in the four- to five-figure range at current auctions. Both men pleaded guilty. Hillis got five years in prison plus three on probation and a $1,000 fine on five felony counts of disturbing the contents of a grave; Atkinson got five years and ten on probation on the same five counts plus manufacturing meth, obstruction, and two counts of felon-in-possession, with 250 hours of community service. But that won't put an end to grave robbing from the war dead. Investigators [never recovered]() what was stolen from the graves. ![]() *(Burke County Sheriff's Office/Sgt. Sean Cochran)* The issue of grave robbing by those searching unique, ancient artifacts is a huge problem the world over, especially in places like Egypt, Peru, and Cambodia. These are areas filled with archaeological treasures and a steady flow of individuals who are struggling economically and are willing to risk punishment to go dig up said artifacts for the right price. And that price can always be found. Illegally-sold Egyptian antiquities [are found all over the world]() as they make their way from the Valley of the Kings to Syria to Dubai to New York and, finally, to whatever buyer is waiting at their final destination. Eager collectors are just waiting to find the right artifact from the right seller at the right price. The same technology that brings the world closer together also brings looters and grave robbers closer to these buyers. Meanwhile, long-running television shows like "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers" have spent more than a decade demonstrating how readily a few authentic pieces of history convert to cash. The ease of moving ill-gotten items and the interest their origins generate are making grave robbing a profitable crime right here in the United States, too. The value of Civil War-era artifacts has led to the growth of a booming black market. A rare Confederate uniform button can bring thousands from the right collector. Southern antiques auction listing value an officer's pistol at upwards of $9,000—and that's before any documented name is attached to it. Provenance multiplies the sum: a sword traceable to a named officer [has been appraised by brokers]() at $50,000. A named general's blade can drive the price even higher. ![1st lieutenant civil war sword grave rob confederate]() *This (not looted) Confederate 1st Lt. sword was appraised for $8,000. (PBS/Antiques Roadshow)* Provenance in this field means a chain of ownership, like a bill of sale, a family letter, a dealer's records. A relic pulled out of the ground has none of that by definition. But collectors can tell a dug piece from an attic piece; soil leaves its mark on brass. What nobody can tell from the object itself is whether it came off a battlefield, out of a farmer's field with permission, or out of a grave. As a result, there is treasure literally buried all over the South. And people are digging for it. On federal land, it's a crime under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. Violators risk [up to $20,000 in fines](), or two years in prison (or both). But looted grave goods are undocumented by definition. Once a button or a sword enters the market with no provenance, nobody can prove it came out of a grave rather than an attic. So prosecutors don't charge the value of the goods; they charge damage to the site. The most extreme case ever prosecuted didn't come from a cemetery, it came from a battlefield: Petersburg National Battlefield. Over four years, John Jeffrey Santo worked the park with a metal detector and his dog, and investigators eventually [recovered more than 9,000 relics]() from him. They found items like bullets, buckles, cannonballs, breastplates, and buttons. He kept a journal of every trip. One entry described five buttons pulled from a single spot, which a park historian took as a sign that an unrecorded soldier had been buried there. Santo pleaded guilty to two counts of damaging archaeological resources and one count of pillaging the battlefield, and despite the massive haul, drew only 366 days in prison and $7,346 in restitution for the damage his holes did to the ground. He's also the exception: the National Park Service says only about 14% of looting cases are ever solved, and roughly 95% of the ones that are end in misdemeanor convictions. ![grave robbed civil war dead new mexico]() *Archaeologists dig at New Mexico's Fort Craig cemetery, where the remains of soldiers and children were secretly exhumed after an informant tipped them off about widespread grave-looting. (U. S. Bureau of Land Reclamation)* On paper, the black market is a lot more difficult. eBay now [bars the sale of items taken from historical grave sites]() and requires antiquities listings to carry provenance and documentation of legal sale. Whether that stops anything depends entirely on enforcement, and on a seller volunteering where a button actually came from. Your local Civil War museum is almost certainly clean, but not because there's a system watching. Legitimate institutions won't accession an object without a documented chain of ownership, which a looted relic could never produce. But undocumented material doesn't end up in museum display cases, it ends up in the hands of private collectors, usually with no questions asked. At some locations, authorities don't expect people to play by the rules. Instead, they take the proactive approach of removing historical relics themselves and moving them to national cemeteries. At New Mexico's Fort Craig, for example, federal archaeologists[ ]()exhumed [67 sets of remains]() after determining that 20 graves had already been looted by a collector who died while he was being investigated for the crime. Leaving the rest in the ground was just not an option. **Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty** **• [President Lincoln personally led a recon mission during the Civil War]()** **• [Modern dishes anyone can make using Civil War foods]()** **• [5 reasons why John Bell Hood was the worst Civil War general]()** ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]() ## More - [The Civil War created the modern American funeral industry]() - [Why Confederate soldiers are not considered ‘US veterans’]() - [This cemetery is the final resting place for the Army’s ‘dishonorable dead’]() - [The story behind the Civil War sub that sank a Union ship, then disappeared]() - [What happened to the dead bodies after big battles in history]() - [The lore of the “lost Confederate treasure”]() - [Why the Union wore blue and the Confederacy gray during the Civil War]() - [Why handling battlefield casualties was so gruesome during the Civil War]()