This is an iron ball from a 3-inch Hotchkiss canister round fired here at Gettysburg, found at Oak Hill, the scene of intense fighting on the afternoon of July 1, and once in the Shields Museum. That museum opened here in town in 1925 displaying relics picked up the battlefield and was in business until 1985, when the Park Service purchased the land, and the contents, except a few pieces that had been sold privately over the years, were auctioned. Canister was the principal artillery round used against infantry as the distance between combatants closed, often fired point-blank or even with muzzles slightly depressed to get a grazing shot that would not pass over any enemy troops and would leave no dead-ground between the gun and the target. This has just light corrosion and is emblematic of how intense the fighting was that day.  [sr][ph:m]

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