Arms, Armor and Militaria Online

11.8 pounds, nominally 4.5" in diameter. Round iron solid shot engraved Gettysburg/1863 with a sprig of leaves emanating from the top of the "g" at the end of Gettysburg. The engraving is consistent with the style of the shells marked by Edward Woodward (1815-1894) of Gettysburg. Woodard was an Englishman who emigrated to America in the mid-1850s and was a gunsmith by trade. Too old to really participate in the war as a solider, Woodward initially volunteered to care for Confederate prisoners held at Point Lookout, MD in 1862 as part of the Union Relief Association. In 1863 he came to Gettysburg after the battle with the US Christian Commission to help care for the thousands of wounded. He would remain in Gettysburg for the rest of his life, until his death in 1894. Almost immediately after the battle Woodward realized the potential for souvenir hunters to want a piece of historic events that took place in that town. To that end he opened what may have been the first Civil War "relic shop" in the country and offered bullets, shells and various other battlefield relics for sale. He often engraved shot and shells with the characteristic "Gettysburg/1863" marking found on this shell, and was known to make desk sets from shells as well. According to one source, the earliest known relics proffered by Woodard were dated September 1865, just a few months after the conclusion of the war.