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An eclectic collection gathered by family members and the curators of the CreekBed.org Collection

 

 

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Bullets/Civil War Relics

 

Gettysburg Pickett's Charge Relic
3-Ringer Minie

Civil War relic recovered on the Codori Farm in Gettysburg. This relic was found on private property by the property owner. It was part of the Frederick Collection, 1917-1989. It was owned by Frederick McCullough who had a cousin, William McCullough of Gettysburg, who owned a bookshop in Gettysburg in the early 1900's. Every item in the Frederick Collection was individually wrapped and cataloged by the original owner including recovery location, description and the date. This item was recorded as GB503R, Codori Farm, Gettysburg, Pickett's Charge, August 20, 1924.

The Codori Farm was part of the land the soldiers crossed during Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863. This relic was in the hands of a brave soldier on that fateful afternoon. Pickett's Charge was the turning point and is the most significant battle of the war. The piece shows the normal oxidation associated with relics in the area and of the time. Gettysburg relics of this type that have excellent provenance are becoming harder to find every day. This relic came with 1) a sealed & signed Certificate of Authenticity, 2)photographs of the recovery site, 3) maps and 4) a Letter of Provenance.

 

 2 CARVED CIVIL WAR BULLETS

Two Civil War soldier carved bullets. The smaller one looks like a game piece - possibly a rook for chess. The other might have been intended as a game piece as well. The location where they were found is unknown. These were acquired from the Civil War collection of Henry Deeks. They came with a signed letter noting this provenance.

Bullet carving was a common pastime during long waits in camp.

 

Bullet in wood from Battle of White Oak Road, Virginia

March 31, 1865

This is a Civil War bullet in wood which is from the battle of White Oak Road, Virginia found with the permission from the landowner.

This bullet is a 54 cal. US Sharps. The Sharps Rifle was used in the Civil War by the U.S. Army sharpshooters known popularly as "Berdan's Sharpshooters" in honor of their leader Hiram Berdan. The Sharps made a superior sniper weapon of higher accuracy than the more commonly issued muzzle-loading rifled-muskets. This was due mainly to the higher rate of fire of the breech loading mechanism and the fact that the quality of manufacture was superior. It was produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in Hartford, CT.

 

 

SPENCER CARBINE BULLET FROM  GEORGE CUSTER CAMPSITE

This is a Spencer carbine bullet dug from the Civil War campsite of General George A. Custer, near Middletown, VA. Scene of the Battle of Cedar Creek.

My great grandfather, Peter, fought in The Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19,1864. It was also the site where my great grand uncle, Kieran, was killed on that date. Details on them at: http://creekbed.org/horan/

The Spencer repeating rifle was a manually operated lever-action, repeating rifle fed from a tube magazine with cartridges. It was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War, but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled muskets in use at the time. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version.

The design was completed by Christopher Spencer in 1860, and was for a magazine-fed, lever-operated rifle chambered for the 56-56 Spencer rimfire cartridge. Unlike later cartridge designations, the first number referred to the diameter of the case at the head, while the second number referred to the diameter at the mouth; the actual bullet diameter was .52 inches. Cartridges were loaded with 45 grains (2.9 g) of black powder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_repeating_rifle

 

 

BUCKLE from a Civil War Kepi Hat, Dug Relic from Petersburg VA

The first official version of the Kepi hat was introduced for the U.S. Army in 1858. It was rather baggy in dark blue. It gave rise to a number of methods of wearing, most of which looked unmilitary. Officially called a forage cap, it was nicknamed 'bummers cap' by troops, being described as being 'shapeless as a feedbag'. Despite this, it became the most common form of cap worn by U.S. regulars and volunteers during the American Civil War and is characterized in films such as Gettysburg, Gods and Generals and Glory. It was also worn by many Confederate troops in dark blue, various shades of grey and butternut. A famous wartime commander who habitually wore this cap was Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who wore his plain dark blue round-visored forage cap, a reminder of his days as a former instructor at the Virginia Military Institute, until it was almost falling apart. He was subsequently presented with a new grey forage cap, with gold braid, which he was wearing when he was mortally wounded on the first evening of the battle of Chancellorsville on May 1, 1863.

Petersburg was the site of another battle that my great grandfather attended on April 2, 1865.

This buckle held a strap around the middle and is roughly 7/8" x 3/4"
 

 

1851 Colt Navy Handgun - Reproduction

The Colt 1851 Navy was the most popular six-gun in America up to 1873 when the Peacemaker was developed. The gun was used extensively in the Civil War and later by such notables as James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickcock. The gun design was adopted by the confederate army though because of metal shortages, they had to use a weaker brass frame. Robert E. Lee carried one but when it was fired after the war, it chain-fired, which is to say that all 6 cylinders accidentally fired at once.

The development of handguns in the last half of the 19th century is sometimes compared to the development of the computer in the 20th. New models were constantly being developed and competition between different companies was intense. Because of numerous attempts to counterfeit the 1851, Colt came up with a form of copy protection that is similar to Microsoft hologram that they print on their software boxes. Colt used an engraved cylinder that was difficult for the imitators to reproduce and was proof that you owned an original Colt handgun. The engraving depicts a battle between the Texas and Mexican navies on May 16,
1843.

 

GETTYSBURG EARLY PICK UP DROPPED BULLET FROM THE SHIELDS MUSEUM

This three ring bullet has almost no patina indicating a very early battlefield find. It was a part of the Shields Museum collection. The Shields Museum was a Gettysburg Museum established by Arthur Shields in 1925 to house Gettysburg items. After it was closed, the collection was sold at auction on November 16, 1985. This was a well-known museum and collection, items from which are becoming increasingly difficult to find. It came with a signed letter guaranteeing that this bullet was purchased at the Shields Museum auction with the accompanying lot number. I also included a copy of the original auction advertisement, a copy of the first page of the auction list, and a copy of a newspaper article relating to the original auction.

 

Original Civil War Era Bone or Ivory and Ebony Domino

8/4 from a set of Double 9 Dominoes. The Double 9 sets were quite uncommon during Civil War times, but where around in small quantities. Most sets were Double 6 sets.

The soldiers often played Dominoes (and other games) in camps between battles.

Center pin is good and solid.

Notice the lack of uniformity between the dots.

Nice aged patina and great character.

The size of the domino is a approximately 1.46" X .72" X .26" thick.

Dominoes with one pin in the center are more commonly associated with the South. Dominoes with 2 or 3 pins were mostly northern.

 

 

 Group Of Twelve Civil War Ground Recovered Soldier Pipes

Civil war pipes from the Vicksburg Mississippi area. They come from private land and were found in a union camp trash pit that is on private land. Originally purchased from the digger at the Memphis civil war show, winter of 2008.

In the 17th and 18th Centuries thousands of clay pipes came to the New World and many fragments are still being found in the soil of the earliest settlements. Pipe shards and some intact clays have been excavated on Civil War battlefields and in encampments in great numbers showing the strong presence of clay pipes in the 1860s among the soldiers who fought on both sides. "The Clay" remained king at least among men until the later part of the 19th Century.

The first clay pipes were introduced to Europeans along with tobacco smoking by the Native Americans of South and North America. It was not long before clay pipe making became an established trade.  Later mass produced European and American clay pipes became a trade item and were bartered back to Native American tribes!

Clay pipes can be repaired with the quill of a turkey or goose as a stem!"

These are ground recovered pipes so they are all missing parts of their stems and have some damage. In the period when pipes where made of pipe clay the owner would snap off a small portion of his pipe as he smoked because the end would become bitter.. He would do this until he came to the "bitter end". This is why for the most part you will not find ground recovered pipes in good condition.

The information above came from James E. Boyle & Beth Maxwell Boyle Thistledown Croft

 

Peach Orchard

 

1864 INDIAN HEAD PENNY

Confederate coin, Confederate disk button and Confederate pistol ball.

 

Civil War Era Effigy Trade Pipe

 

 


Useful

Resources

 



Authentic
Artifact
Collectors
Association

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Overstreetid.com
The Official Overstreet Indian Arrowhead Identification Online Database

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Last Modified : 07/21/15 12:26 PM

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