Ordnance.

As a museum curator, you spend a lot of time thinking about how the various elements of the environment can do harm to the artifacts in the collection. You think about heat and humidity, mold and mildew, and numerous other threats to historic materials. In our case, we think a lot about how our 1850's row home facility and the people who visit it can potentially harm the objects. Researchers using books are hard on the old paper and weak spines, leather and metal can be harmed by the oils on the skin. You take the utmost precautions to prevent harm to the objects by keeping them in controlled environments, conserving and stabilizing items that are in urgent need of care, and saying over and over again, "please don't touch."

What you don't spend much time thinking about is how objects in the collection might harm you. And not just you, but harm the other staff, the visitors, and the public at large. For most museums, such as those covering art or science, the concern is largely chemical or particulate. For a museum like ours, the danger is more direct and immediate. Like unexploded ordnance, for example.

In our case, unexploded ordnance is anything from relic shell stuck in battle logs, shells dug out of the ground, unfired bullets, percussion caps, and artillery fuses. It is too easy to think of these things in their historical context, as an original hand made .58 caliber cartridge or a shell that lodged in a tree at the Battle of Gettysburg, and not as the weapon that it truly is. But as we prepare to move our collection, it became imperative that we determine without a doubt the safety of these items.

As a result, on July 8th, the museum was visited by a team of experts with a fascinating array of equipment and information in order to certify the safely of our ordnance. Using techniques both high and low tech, the team was able to provide us with crucial information about these unique artifacts. The most impressive piece of technology is pictured above. It is a mobile x-ray machine that the team used to get instant digital x-rays of artillery shells to reveal if there is any powder left in them. This is of particular value when examining battle logs, because there is often no other way to learn if they are inert.

High tech isn't the only way, however, and the team used methods as simple as probing the inside of the shell with a straightened wire hanger or simply weighing the item. The team brought a large binder full of data on Civil War shells, such as how much they weight when both full and empty. This information proved useful for one shell that turned out to be stubbornly resistant to x-rays. Simply placing it on a scale revealed that it was significantly less than the 24 lbs. it was supposed to weight. It was empty, and therefore safe.

So we gained a great deal of information about the ordnance in our collection. The serious part is that it is safe. We will be issued a "certificate of inertness" (I need one of those for Saturdays), and can proceed with moving these items with confidence. We also learn some fascinating things that were more fun. For example, the battle log above actually has a metal rod inserted through it that holds the shell in place (many years ago they must have worried that it would fall out). Another battle log that we thought had two cannon balls lodged in it turned out to only have two fragments in it. The tree had grown around them in such a way as to make the fragments appear to be solid rounds.

It was a fun and interest day at the museum. We learned a lot, and got to watch a team of highly trained and dedicated experts do their thing. We are very grateful to them, and appreciate their efforts to insure that our ordnance is safe. That is, as long as you don't drop it on your foot.

July 3, 1863

The battle that took place of July 3, 1863, on the fields just south of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was largely the result of the decisions of two men. The first, of course, was Robert E. Lee. His questionable decision to resume the offensive after being repulsed the previous day with significant losses has been debated since the last gun fell silent that day. The other was George Gordon Meade. Meade held a council of war in the very early hours of July 3rd, and concluded that the best course of action was to stay where he was and see what Lee would do next.

Battles are won and lost, and lives are spared or sacrificed, on decisions such as these. We tend to think of these judgements being made by historical titans who stride through our books and our imaginations like giants. But Meade and Lee were mortals like the rest of us. Uncertain about the intentions of the other, receiving questionable information about the situation, and under the influence of very human elements we work through every day; too much work and too little sleep. It is something of wonder that these men were able to think clearly at all, much less make such decisions with so much at stake.

It was at that early morning council that Meade had the clairvoyance to caution General John Gibbon that the next attack would likely be on the Union center. He was wearing the uniform coat and hat pictured above at that council, as he had been for the entire battle. It is a custom made uniform frock coat, possibly made for him here in Philadelphia, and has a beautifully embroidered lining featuring eagles and stars and shields that unfortunately can not be seen when the coat is on display. The hat, in the wide brimmed style usually favored by Meade, has a bullet hole through the crown from a previous engagement. After Meade's death in 1872, these items went to his son, George G. Meade, Jr., who served on his father's staff durning the Battle of Gettysburg and throughout the war. Meade Jr., gave them to the Museum, one of the first to come to what was then called the War Library and Museum.

The items connect us not just to the man and the event, but to the very moment one of the great decisions in our American history was made. He earned the rest that came with victory.

July 2, 1863

When the sun rose over the Gettysburg countryside on July 2, 1863, it brought the familiar sticky heat from the previous days, as well as something unexpected: quiet. But, with the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in such close proximity, veteran soldiers on both sides knew the quiet would not last. When the calm was finally broken by Confederate General James Longstreet's attack on the Union left flank near the Devil's Den and the Round Tops around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, it broke like a thunderstorm.

Museums use objects to tell different aspects of history. Some convey personal stories, some are relics of key events, and others are mementos of people who were there. One of the things that even those of us who have spent our entire lives studying and reading about events such as Gettysburg find hard to conceive of is the shear chaotic violence of a battle such as the one which erupted on that hot July afternoon.

Relics such as the one pictured above provide us with a stunning frame of reference. It is a battle log. Specifically, it was cut from a tree on the western slope of Big Round Top. The 10 lb. rifle shell lodged in the log was fired by Reilly's North Carolina Battery against the men of Col. Strong Vincent's brigade as the desperately struggled to hold the Union flank. The log itself came from a tree that fell in a storm on Sept. 30, 1906, and was given to the Museum by John P. Nicholson, one of the leading figures in creating Gettysburg as a National Military Park.

But aside from what it is, its significance is what it represents. There were thousands of these shells flying through the air that afternoon. This one was a dud and failed to detonate, but most where not. It is visual, tactile evidence of the enormous amount of iron and lead that was tearing through trees, splitting rocks, digging up earth, and cutting flesh. Through it, we hear the deafening sound, smell the acrid smoke, and better understand that while to us the battlefield is a vast sweeping space, to the soldiers in the fight it was a very tiny, deadly place.

Battle logs were somewhat common souvenirs after the war, and were often cut by the veterans themselves and contained debris from the part of the battlefield on which their unit fought. Some, like this one, have been lacquered in order to prevent decay or insect damage. Our museum is fortunate to have about a dozen of these relics in our collection.

July 1, 1863.

July 1st, 1863 was the first day of the epic Battle of Gettysburg. To commemorate, I thought I would post an image of three objects in our collection that are significant to that day. And it doesn't come more significant than this!

In the photo you see above are the sword belt, sash, and saddle of Union General John F. Reynolds. He was wearing the sword belt and sash, and riding on the saddle when he was shot an killed while leading the Iron Brigade forward that morning. These items were given to the Reynolds family just days after his death. They were donated to the Museum in the 1930's.

These are some of my favorite items. They are both historically significant and poignant.