Posted 14 years ago
poptop76
(28 items)
This is a minie ball lodged in a peice of wood found in the woods around the Bentonville battle grounds. I have been told it is definately not Confederate as they never missed ..... so I can only assume it to be Union. Anybody have any comments ? :o)
I had to laugh out loud (no, not "LOL", but actually physically laugh) over how we know it's not confederate. I'll remember that next time I'm looking at something like this.
These became a popular souvenir right after the war. In many cases the wood would deteriorate over the years, leaving us only the bullet. It looks like whoever collected this specimen covered it in shellac, which may have preserved it.
Of course, people are still finding these:
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/bullet-riddled-oak-tree-found-at-gettysburg/63ydc82
These became a popular souvenier post war souvenier. in many cases the wood would deteriorate over the years, leaving us only the bullet. It looks like whoever collected this specimen covered it in shellac,
Ooops! just ignore the last paragraph!
Yeah it seems to be a good joke everytime I show if off. I used to take it into 4th grade classrooms and show it off and I think most of the kids beleived me. A friend of mine found it in 1988 in a tree that had fallen down many years before. He did shalack it for preservation.