GETTYSBURG 12-POUNDER HOWITZER PASS BOX LID EX-MILLER POST #551, YORK SPRINGS, PA

GETTYSBURG 12-POUNDER HOWITZER PASS BOX LID EX-MILLER POST #551, YORK SPRINGS, PA

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$975.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1202-870

This lid from a pass box, used by artillery gun crews to bring live artillery cartridges up to a gun’s muzzle for loading. These were cylindrical in shape with the lid having a wood plug on the underside to seal the opening of the box securely and slotted on either side to move up and down the shoulder sling freely. The lid is clearly stenciled in white “HOWITZER” along its lower edge with upper edge showing rubbing to the white painted “12” and some of the “PDR.” indicating the ammunition was for a twelve-pounder howitzer. The leather handle is still in place and firmly secured to the top, showing just some rubbing at center from use. Just below this and above the “howitzer” designation is a great old paper display label with “Gettysburg” in brown ink.

This was once in the collections of Miller G.A.R. Post 551, Department of PA, located in York Springs, here in Adams County, who were in a very good position to acquire relics from the Gettysburg battlefield and many of whose relics we have handled in the past. When the post disbanded sometime between 1919 and 1924 the relics were entrusted to David Starry, reportedly the youngest member or the post, and a former Post Adjutant and Post Commander. These included tagged and un-tagged relics from the battlefield and a few tagged pieces from elsewhere. These remained in Starry’s family until purchased by well-known Maryland antique and Civil War dealer Tom Gordon and his father in the 1970s and a number of pieces from this collection have come our way over the years.

The Miller Post had been chartered (or “mustered”) July 2, 1887, and was named after a member of the 30th Pennsylvania killed at South Mountain. David Starry had served twice in the war: in the 165th PA Drafted Militia and in the 21st PA Cavalry. He returned to Adams County after the war, married in 1868 and reared twelve children. We know from the February 1924 obituary of another former member of the Miller Post #551 that the post had disbanded by that point. Ironically, though entrusted with the relics as the youngest member of the post according to the family, he died in 1925, outlived by at least one other member, who died in 1931, reportedly as the last survivor.

This is a good Gettysburg artillery-related battlefield relic with a tight provenance.  [sr][ph:L]

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