This relic was once part of the collection at the Shields Museum. Ott Shields amassed one of the earliest and well known collections of Gettysburg artifacts.  In 1918, he opened a private museum that featured the “Shields Collection,” one of the few documented Gettysburg collections obtained by local families (Rosensteel; Danner; Wert; Mumper; Ziegler, etc.).  The Shields Museum closed in the 1980s and the collection was sold at auction on November 16, 1985.  Offering over 600 lots “comprised mostly of Gettysburg battlefield pick-up relics,” the auction attracted several hundred Civil War collectors, dealers, and museum buyers.

The Railroad Cut, which parallels the Chambersburg Pike west of Gettysburg, was at the time of the battle an excavation in which railroad tracks had not yet been placed, but which provided a deep entrenchment. During the first day of the battle on July 1, 1863, units from the Union Army of the Potomac deployed near the railway cut to contest the attacks of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Confederates were held off during the morning and early afternoon but were able to drive off the Union army due to superior numbers.

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