This item is interesting and unusual: a homemade wooden bootjack with hand engraved unit identification. With provenance to the Dr. Hill Collection, it was recovered soon after the battle at an unknown location in Gettysburg. In original, undamaged condition, it measures approximately 20 inches long by 5 ¼ inches at it widest point and is made of one-inch thick pine. This bootjack has taken on a very attractive brown and green patina; it has not been cleaned or otherwise fussed with. The top edge is rounded and has a small hanging hole; the bottom edge has the V-shaped notch for quick boot removal. The ankle rest has rounded edges, measures 5 inches by 1 ½ inches by 1 ½ inches, and is secured with six old square headed nails; two from the top and two from the bottom. The most interesting feature of this bootjack is the engraving; in deep hand cut lettering; the unit and date are identified as "OCT, 1862 / CO x B ' 158, REGT" in two lines. Although no unit with the 158th Regimental designation fought at Gettysburg, it could have been from a post Battle clean-up unit (such as the 158th PA posted to Boonesboro, MD to support General Meade on July 11, 1863) or lost and recovered by a different unit at another location prior to the Battle. This piece is identified in John Geiselman's collection by his museum listing and is accompanied by a small round tag with John's neatly printed inventory number "11". It would make an interesting conversation piece for a Gettysburg or Civil War collection.

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The Horse Soldier is pleased to offer a number of items from the John P. Geiselman collection, a collection that was on display for many years at the Geiselman Country Store Museum on Barlow - Two Taverns Road. Geiselman began his collecting as a child in the early 1920s, and during the pre-World II period had access to artifacts that had been purchased earlier at the estate sales of the Trostle, Rogers, Rose, Weikert, and Wentz farms - local properties that figured prominently in the battle and its aftermath. During this period he had access as well to the Hill , Plank, and Stewart collections, and was able to acquire other items that had been sold from turn-of-the-century relics establishments such as the Danner, Ziegler, and Oak Ridge Museums. Furthermore, Geiselman carefully documented most artifacts, and collectors perusing the list will be able to note, in many instances, not only the source of the relic and the date of its recovery, but also the part of the battlefield from which it came. In other words, his collection is the last major grouping of Gettysburg artifacts assembled and documented by a local resident.

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