Man finds scrap of George Washington's tent from 1778 at a Goodwill auction along with a hand written note

Antique hunting is more than just shopping, it's an adventure through time.

At auctions and garage sales, you never know what treasures you might find.

Richard 'Dana' Moore was browsing a Goodwill auction site, looking for interesting items, when he came across a piece of fabric.

Moore has long collected items from the Civil War and the War of 1812, some of which he’s found through metal detecting. So, he knew what to look out for.

To most people, it probably looked like an old piece of cloth, but to Dana, it had potential.

The site claimed it was part of a tent once owned by George Washington.

At first, Moore thought the tent scrap 'couldn’t be real.'

Museum of the American Revolution

But the auctioned treasure came with a note that read: 'a piece of George Washingtons tent, from the history building at Jamestown exposition 1907 property of John Burns Dec 23rd 07.'

With this promising sign, Moore won the object for $1,300 after a brief bidding war.

'My gut kept telling me this could be real,' he said.

Just as well as experts from the Museum of the American Revolution actually confirmed that the fabric was part of a tent that George Washington used in 1778 - during the Revolutionary War.

As Washington led his troops in the late 1770s, he reportedly travelled with two large tents called marquees.

One was for dining and the other for his office and sleeping quarters.

According to museum curator Matthew Skic, the fabric that Moore purchased came from Washington’s dining tent.

The tent was probably loaned to the Jamestown Exposition in 1907 by a Washington relative.

Museum of the American Revolution

'At that time, Mary Custis Lee, Martha Washington’s great-great-granddaughter and daughter of Robert E. Lee, owned Washington’s tents from the Revolutionary War,' Skic explained. 'She put the dining marquee on loan to the exposition.'

Funnily enough, Moore initially hid the purchase from his wife, Susan Bowen who was also sceptical.

But after the couple watched a presentation from the Museum of the American Revolution, they were convinced that the scrap was genuine.

'We took a close look at the weave of the fabric and the style and shape of the red wool edging with assistance from textile conservator Virginia Whelan,' Skic added.

'These details match the dining marquee. We were able to determine that this fragment was cut away from the scalloped edge of the roof of the dining marquee.'