Section of Civil War musket barrel, dug from the Spotsylvania Virginia Battlefield

This is another nice relic being offered, it is an excavated section of a .58 caliber musket barrel. It measures 13 1/2”  long with a diameter of 1 ¼”. It was dug many years ago from the Spotsylvania Virginia Battlefield.

After the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864, Grant’s and Meade’s advance on Richmond by the left flank was stalled at Spotsylvania Court House on May 8. This two-week battle was a series of combats along the Spotsylvania front. The Union attack against the “Bloody Angle” at dawn, May 12-13, captured nearly a division of Lee’s army and came near to cutting the Confederate army in half. Confederate counterattacks plugged the gap and fighting continued unabated for nearly 20 hours in what may well have been the most ferociously sustained combat of the Civil War.

What is interesting about this piece is that both ends of the barrel have rust. Sometimes a digger would cut away a badly damaged or rusted area, with this piece it is exactly as dug with dirt still inside, indicative of it being just how it was when lost or discarded during the war (no modern cut marks). As expected from being dug, there is overall surface rust, but no chipping or flaking. This would make a nice addition to any Civil War collection.