Measures about 3 inches long. Dug condition; relic is missing parts in several places. Threads are still visible along the body, but they are very worn. Heavy surface rust. Recovered from the East Cavalry Field in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 3, 1863) during the disastrous infantry assault nicknamed Pickett's Charge, there were two cavalry battles: one approximately three miles to the east, in the area known today as East Cavalry Field, the other southwest of Big Round Top (sometimes called South Cavalry Field). The East Cavalry Field fighting was an attempt by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry to get into the Federal rear and exploit any success that Pickett's Charge may have generated. Union cavalry under Brig. Gens. David McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer repulsed the Confederate advances. The losses from the 40 intense minutes of fighting on East Cavalry Field were relatively minor: 254 Union casualties--219 of them from Custer's brigade--and 181 Confederate. Although tactically inconclusive, the battle was a strategic loss for Stuart and Robert E. Lee, whose plans to drive into the Union rear were foiled.

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