This dropped .45 caliber Whitworth bullet was designed and used in Sir Joseph Whitworth’s sniper rifle. Whitworth, a prominent British engineer and entrepreneur, patented the concept of adding a twisted hexagonal cannon bore and applied this concept to small arms, creating a rifle using a hexagonal bullet and a cylindrical bullet with a hollow base, the type imported during the American Civil War. A perfect dropped bullet with a nice white/tan patina.

This item was once part of the Shields Museum Collection, located on the First Day’s Battlefield by the Reynolds equestrian statue.

Arthur “OTT” Shield’s opened a Civil War Museum west of Gettysburg along route 30 near the Reynold’s Monument in 1925. OTT would amass one of the largest and earliest collections of Gettysburg artifacts. His Museum would rival the Danner Museum and his fathers-in-law Museum, John Rosensteel’s “Round Top Museum/Inn.”

OTT and his wife Margaret (Rosensteel) the only child of John Rosensteel would raise seven children at the Museum which was also their homestead. After their father’s death in 1950, Ellen, their daughter, continued to operate the Museum and concession stand. The Museum was free of charge and was sustained financially on sales of extra artifacts, concessions and souvenirs.

In the Spring of 1974 Tom Bohon, military collector and a resident of nearby Greencastle, PA, who often visited the Shield’s Museum on a regular basis and also befriended Ellen. May 1974, Saturday morning, Tom would purchase a large grouping of relics from the 1st Day’s Battlefield that was all displayed in the Museum from Ellen. Tom realized it was his only chance to buy relics from the Museum.

The Shields family would operate the Museum until the “NPS” acquired the property in 1985. The Collection was sold by Redding Auctions in November 1985. Upon Tom Bohon’s death in the Fall of 2019, the Collection was sold at Redding Auctions in September 2020. [ws]

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