Civil War Enfield Bullet recovered at the Roulette Farm, Antietam

This is another great piece being offered, it is a .577 dropped Enfield bullet, used by both sides during the Civil War. This bullet and several others were recovered at the Roulette Farm on the Antietam Battlefield, back when it was still private property in the 1970s and 1980s (see pictures). The Roulette Farm borders the Sunken Road / Bloody Lane.

During the battle, thousands of Union soldiers from Gen. William H. French's division moved across the Roulette farm and even through the buildings on their way to the fighting along the Sunken Road. Damage to the Roulette house, property and crops was extensive. A shell even knocked over their beehive, causing temporary chaos among the inexperienced troops of the 130th Pennsylvania Infantry.

In the aftermath of battle, the Roulette barn was used as a field hospital for many of the Union wounded during the Sunken Road fighting. There were 700 soldiers buried in mass graves in his fields. One eyewitness, Chaplain Henry S. Stevens of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, wrote of the damage to the house: "Bullets pierced it on the day of battle, and one huge shell tore through the west side, a little above the floor, and going through the parlor in an upward course passed through the ceiling and a wall beyond and fell harmless amid a heap of rubbish it had created, where we saw it many times that day. During the battle the rooms were stripped of their furnishings and the floors were covered with the blood and dirt and litter of a field hospital..."

This bullet is in very nice condition, just as it came out of the ground. It is an important relic from the bloodiest day in American History.