Featured "Wood from Little Roundtop" Gettysburg frame

From what I've learned, souvenirs were made from trees (some fallen) from the battlefield. I found 2 online, one had a stamp similar, neither were picture frames. I'm going to list it and see what happens. Clearly has that condition issue with that split, but thinking someone may want this..

Has anyone run into similar?



The "12.50" is not what I paid. Maybe former owner got it at an antique store or something.

 

Wow, this is really cool!
I've been to Gettysburg. What an amazing place.

 

The date on the back was the date of the battle. People went in afterward and took wooden bits and made them into souvenirs for a good 20 years after the battle. THe crack is likely due to humidity changes, or the wood being too green when it was worked. The backing (and those 20th century nails) came into the picture, ahem, much later.

 

That makes sense. Her costume is later than 1863.

Debora

 

Or earlier, by a lot.

 

The turning point of the 3 day battle- great find ! I'd a snapped it up quick.

 

Trees that were (presumably) there on the 3 days of the battle are called 'Witness Trees'.
Naturally a real jackpot would be a section of 'Witness Tree' with an original cannonball still wedged in it- these do exist from various battles.
There are even a few cases of original belt plates found with a period minie' ball embedded in them- very rare are the few authenticated examples of two bullets fused together from colliding in the midst of a battle !
'During the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, an estimated 7 million bullets and over 50,000 artillery projectiles (totaling roughly 569 tons of ammunition) were fired.'

 

There are many photographs of the battlefield, and people have compared them with later photos to identify the witness trees. Really pretty interesting, and it's surprising how many remain! It's one of the best preserved battlefields, and I love visiting there.

The 15th Alabama had just marched 18 miles, and their canteens were empty. And they still almost pushed those Mainers off that hill. If they had, and had turned the enemy's left flank, the outcome might've been different. But it wasn't to be. That, and the loss of Vicksburg in the West were two blows the South couldn't recover from.

 

An interesting item indeed!

There are a number of battle scared trees form various battle around. The Battle field at Waterloo in Belgium still has a couple of trees at the farm at Hougoumont with musket shot in them. there were three but one unfortunately was quite renetly lost in a storm.
The farm was the scene of bitter fighting throughout that day and the trees are quite peppered with shot.
Today just happens to be the 211th anniversary of that battle.

At Little Roundtop, the 20th Maine Regiment had a quarter of their strength killed or wounded. Their bitter defence of the roundtop saved the entire union left wing from being outflanked, and thus was instrumental in the Union victory. It, like all the battles of the unfortunate civil war, deserved to be remembered.

 

'An image comparing a Minnie-ball bullet from the American Civil War era with a more modern FMJ bullet. Despite initial concerns surrounding the potential for injury due to the increased velocity of the FMJ bullet, it was found to be far less destructive than the Minie-ball which had greater mass, and was made from soft lead (Dougherty and Collins, 2009)'
Colonel Minie's bullets (balls) were monsters.

 

The Mineé ball had a plug in the rear of the bullet which helped force the bullet into the rifling, thus increasing the velocity greatly. This combined with a slightly hollow point caused the bullet to flattern out when it struck a target, which was the main cause of so many limbs that had to be amputated during the war.

 

Here is a Mineé ball recovered from a Victorian firing range in North England. The first image shows the plug in the base of the bullet designed to push the soft lead 'ball' firmly into the rifling and thus increasing velocity and accuracy. The second picture shows the deformed point of the bullet, and this was presumably fired into a soft background at the range, probably packed earth. Now imagne bone etc...... No wonder the wounds were so horrendous during the ACW.

 

The Minie balls I've seen, handled, and fired don't have a hollow point. There was a "ball puller' that attached to the ramrod to remove a bullet from the bore. It was shaped like a screw, and effectively screwed into the bullet to pull it free. That may account for a "hollow" point.

It was a slow moving (compared to modern ammunition), very heavy chunk of lead. It tore into flesh, and didn't pierce bone, but shattered it. By contrast, a modern bullet, with much higher velocity, actually does, as was pointed out, leaves a much cleaner wound.

 

I don't want to be hit with either thanks.