GETTYSBURG RECOVERED SOLDIER-CARVED MINIE BALL

GETTYSBURG RECOVERED SOLDIER-CARVED MINIE BALL

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$675.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2025-1746

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Call 717-334-0347,
Fax 717-334-5016, or E-mail

This is a US .58 Cal. bullet shaped and carved with an officer’s name that was found here at Gettysburg and comes from the Rosensteel-Rider collection. The Rosensteel family needs no introduction to Gettysburg collectors: they are credited with, “assembling and displaying the greatest collection of Gettysburg relics in history” (“Gettysburg Battlefield Relics and Souvenirs,”) with a portion of the family’s collection forming the bulk of NPS museum. Begun by John H. Rosensteel with a rifle he picked up on the battlefield on July 5, 1863, the collection was expanded by other members of the member and their descendants, principally through John H. Rosensteel’s nephew George and George’s children John, George, Jr., and Iva.

Iva Rosensteel (1887-1964) married into the Rider family, with her children and grandchildren continuing their interest and collecting. Living in the area behind the Round Tops, they were able to amass a considerable collection from areas now off-limits to relic hunting. This bullet comes from the collection of Iva’s granddaughter, whose collection we were fortunate enough to purchase some time ago and is recorded in a logbook kept by the family as #57B. It is a .58 caliber Minie ball that was carved out between the two top rings and lightly incised on the top, “LT. Ross.”

One possible candidate suggested has been Lt. J.E. Ross of the 48th Alabama, a unit in Law’s brigade that was involved in the taking of Devil’s Den and was later posted on the slopes of Big Round Top, in close proximity to the Rider family. We have not eliminated all other possibilities, however, and Ross’s record is unclear- he seems to have been hospitalized at Richmond and submitted his resignation on the basis of a foot wound before the Gettysburg Campaign began, but records also indicate his initial try for a surgeon’s certificate was turned down and that he was ultimately discharged for a gunshot fracture of the thigh in late July 1863, making it possible he rejoined the regiment in time to be wounded at Gettysburg, perhaps carving the bullet himself during a rest in the march north or with the troubling notion that one of his men may have been literally carrying a bullet with his name on it. It is, in any case, an interesting piece of soldier art, that might repay further detective work and comes from a well-respected local collection.  [sr][ph:L]

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