Description:

EARLY GETTYSBURG ARTILLERY SHELL FRAGMENT WITH MUSEUM TAG
A true relic picked up from the battlefield the day after the cataclysmic battle of Gettysburg, a 3 3/4" diameter section of an iron shell recovered by a relic hunter from among the unburied dead! The shell fragment bears a small numbered tag pasted thereto, and is accompanied by its original handwritten descriptive tag (now faded but legible), with a later ca. 1960 transcript. In full, the tag reads, "Piece of round shell picked up by J. Howard Wert, July 4, 1863 from among heaped piles of dead and unburied rebels, in the Death Valley of Culp's Hill, Gettysburg Battlefield. The principal fighting here had been on the evening and night of July 2, and all the forenoon of July 3, 1863. The dead were already much swollen and were buried in long trenches, July 5, 1863". J. HOWARD WERT (1841-1920) served as a scout for the Union forces, gathering information prior to the battle of Gettysburg. On the first day of the battle, he guided the First Corps to the Seminary and assisted in the retreat to Cemetery Hill. On July 2, he helped Union forces reach Little Round Top when it was threatened on the left of the Union line; that night he led Geary's Division back to Culp's Hill on the Union right. On the final day of the battle he helped reinforcements reach Cemetery Ridge to repel Pickett's Charge. In the days following the battle Wert walked the battlefield gathering artifacts left by the soldiers who fought there. Wert carefully notated exactly where each piece was discovered, which provided valuable information for later researchers.

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October 9, 2010 11:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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