The Ziegler collection was formed by William Ziegler from items picked up on the Ziegler farm and surroundings in Gettysburg. See Gettysburg Battlefield Relics & Souvenirs for several items coming from that collection. This is an artillery gunner’s gimlet, a small but handy tool in emergencies, used, in the words of Gibbon’s Artillerist’s Manual, “for boring out plugs which may have been inserted in the vent, or the stems of priming-tubes which may have become wedged in there.” These show up with both wood and wire handles, the key part being the screw tip used to draw out whatever was blocking the vent, with the vent punch used as a back-up tool to simply force out the blockage if it could not be drawn.

Needless to say, if the vent was blocked, the artillery piece was out of action, which could make for some frayed nerves on the part of its crew if enemy infantry was closing in, and the shank of this one shows a slight bend, indicating it was being put to hard work. There is no find location given, and one thinks of things like “double-canister at ten yards” at the height of Pickett’s charge, but we note also that the Ziegler woods were adjacent to East Cemetery Hill, the scene of hand-to-hand fighting between US artillery crews and Confederate infantry who had, indeed, managed to close in. This is a small, but rather thought-provoking relic picked up on the field and coming from a well- known local collection. We show an illustration from Battles and Leaders picturing that fighting on Cemetery Hill.   [sr][ph:L]

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