Civil war re-enactors don period clothing during Civil War Days at Lost River Cave on Sunday. Festivities included cannon firings, a Civil War ball, live music and battle re-enactments. MARY POWERS/HERALD

Two years ago, Sara Ferguson, a senior from Springfield, Tenn., went gardening in her front yard on Chestnut Street and found a small piece of American history.

She looked under a rock and discovered an oval-shaped, bronze belt buckle with only two letters engraved on it: US.

“I immediately knew what it was,” Ferguson recalled. “I was so excited when I found it, but I was skeptical about whether or not it was real.”

She took the belt buckle to Western’s history department and Kentucky Museum, but they weren’t able to verify its authenticity.

Finally, Ferguson found a Civil War relic collector at Lost River Cave in Bowling Green who told her that she had found a real belt buckle from a Union soldier’s uniform.

“It isn’t that surprising, really,” she said. “The entire hill Western was built on used to be a Fort for the Union during the Civil War. There are tons of other artifacts around here.”

Associate History Professor Glenn LaFantasie said the Confederates built forts in Bowling Green while it was the Confederate capital of Kentucky, but the Union drove them out in 1862.

“Some of the buildings they built for the war are still around, including the Faculty House between Cherry Hall and Garrett,” he said.

The forts in Bowling Green served as the Confederate’s first line of defense in keeping the Union out of the south, LaFantasie said.

But Civil War history in Bowling Green is not limited to Western’s campus.

Soldiers used the caves at Lost River Cave, 2818 Nashville Road, for shelter and water supply, said Becky Madison.

Madison coordinated the Fifth Annual Civil War Living History Days, which took place this past weekend at Lost River Cave.

The two-day event featured demonstrations of the living conditions of the time as well as re-enactments of Civil War conflicts in Bowling Green, Madison said.

Dressed in a navy jumpsuit with black boots that reached his knees, Bowling Green native James Campbell fixed his bayonet onto his rifle with careful precision during the re-enactment at the cave. He is a re-enactor for the Union.

“The most important thing to remember about Bowling Green is that no recorded battle ever took place here, only small skirmishes,” he said.

LaFantasie said there were no battles at Bowling Green forts because the Confederacy left after Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. These major victories led the Union campaign into Tennessee and the deep south.

“Former President Abraham Lincoln said, ‘If we lose Kentucky, we might as well lose the war,’” LaFantasie said.

The event at the cave also featured a mobile museum about Abraham Lincoln, which features hand-written letters and other artifacts from the former president. Madison said this is the first time the exhibit has been at the cave.

Ferguson, who works at Lost River Cave, still has the war relic she found in her yard.

“I had a special case made for it,” she said. “I could never sell it. It’s like owning a piece of the past.”