RustyRelics
Gold Member
- Apr 5, 2019
- 5,910
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- Equinox 600/Ancient Whites MXT
- Primary Interest:
- Relic Hunting
Gettysburg has been a passion of mine for a while. While I still don't know everything about the battle, I'm still learning. One of the neat things about Gettysburg, is an often overlooked post battle story of possibly the greatest relic dash in U.S. history. The shells that hit the ground on day one hadn't even cooled yet before people were trying to pick them up. For weeks, months, years, curious tourists and relic hunters alike descended on the small Pennsylvania town as an army. Anything that wasn't bolted down was taken, and if it was bolted down, they took pieces off of it. (Okay, a little bit of truthful exaggeration)
It was indeed one of the biggest relic hunts ever, and it still goes on today. Relic hunters with metal detectors knock on doors on private property surrounding the battlefield pretty much daily, much to the exasperation of the locals I'm sure. The lucky few who do get permission pound the area hard, even though a bazillion other guys probably pounded the same ground as they have before.
John Cullison, the Rosensteels, J.A. Danner, Edward Woodward, and John Good made themselves famous just by making Gettysburg relics their life, whether by finding them, displaying them, selling them, engraving or carving them.
Over 7,000,000 bullets were fired, during the three day period, a whopping 250 tons of fired lead alone. This does not even count how many were dropped by panicked or clumsy soldiers. This also does not count the many thousands of things left behind by the soldiers after the battle and retreat.
Below are some of my pieces of Gettysburg.
Found on Little Roundtop, by a Union veteran during an 1880s reunion. The soldiers first name is unknown, but his last name was McPherson. He is unrelated to the owner of the McPherson farm at Gettysburg.
Bullet found on Culps Hill sometime after the battle by a local relic hunter.
High impact bullet found along the Fairfield road, in between Reynolds woods, and Whilloughby Run, in 2005 at a construction site.
Pickups from the Peach Orchard, part of the local Ollinger collection.
Beautiful mushroomed Gardner bullet, found on Culps Hill.
It was indeed one of the biggest relic hunts ever, and it still goes on today. Relic hunters with metal detectors knock on doors on private property surrounding the battlefield pretty much daily, much to the exasperation of the locals I'm sure. The lucky few who do get permission pound the area hard, even though a bazillion other guys probably pounded the same ground as they have before.
John Cullison, the Rosensteels, J.A. Danner, Edward Woodward, and John Good made themselves famous just by making Gettysburg relics their life, whether by finding them, displaying them, selling them, engraving or carving them.
Over 7,000,000 bullets were fired, during the three day period, a whopping 250 tons of fired lead alone. This does not even count how many were dropped by panicked or clumsy soldiers. This also does not count the many thousands of things left behind by the soldiers after the battle and retreat.
Below are some of my pieces of Gettysburg.
Found on Little Roundtop, by a Union veteran during an 1880s reunion. The soldiers first name is unknown, but his last name was McPherson. He is unrelated to the owner of the McPherson farm at Gettysburg.
Bullet found on Culps Hill sometime after the battle by a local relic hunter.
High impact bullet found along the Fairfield road, in between Reynolds woods, and Whilloughby Run, in 2005 at a construction site.
Pickups from the Peach Orchard, part of the local Ollinger collection.
Beautiful mushroomed Gardner bullet, found on Culps Hill.
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