![]() A card at the Gettysburg National Military Park tells the story: "His experiences that day in carrying this heavy rifle home across a landscape corrupted by war changes John's life forever. The boy picks up the rifle, unaware that in that moment his life and the memory of the nation pivot. Lincoln has yet to compose and deliver the Gettysburg Address. Some 22,000 wounded soldiers occupy every available space. The Civil War will burn for almost two more years, but Lee's Army of Northern Virginia will never again strike so far north. Now the battlefield is emptying as the Union army leaves. Two clues as to its owner are engraved on a plate on the rifle's stock: the initials "H.C.P." and "1862."įor three days, Rosensteel's hometown in Pennsylvania had looked like a Hieronymus Bosch painting come to life. A 16-year-old boy named John Rosensteel sees a sharpshooter's rifle, very distinctive, definitely not standard Confederate infantryman's issue. The battle that was not yet history had ended just two days before. ![]() ![]() Here's the text.Ī rifle found two days after the historic Civil War battle finally gets identified by sharpshooter's great grandson and museum Sorry, Folks, didn't realize the article wasn't accessable.
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