Brass button recovered from the Sherfy Farm, Gettysburg, ex-Rosensteel collection (SOLD)

This is another great piece being offered, it is a large coat-size flat brass “coin” button. On the back it still has the standup shank remaining. These buttons are usually associated with Confederate troops.

It was recovered on the Sherfy Farm by late Gettysburg resident John Cullison and afterwards was part of the famous Rosensteel Family Collection (now National Parks Service collection).

The Rosensteel Collection is arguably the most famous collection of Gettysburg relics that have ever existed. John Rosensteel opened his Round Top Museum of Gettysburg artifacts in 1888. The collection, which grew in size as a variety of local collections, such as Cullison’s, was acquired and became the nucleus of the Electric Map Museum collection and ultimately the Gettysburg National Park Museum and Visitor Center collection.

A 1964 advertisement for the Gettysburg National Museum (Electric Map Museum) notes that the John Cullison collection was part of the museum holdings. This Gettysburg artifact not only has wonderful provenance, but it was also found at one of the most famous locations on the battlefield!

The Sherfy Farm covered fifty acres at the time of the battle. Owned by the Reverend Joseph Sherfy, it included the famous Peach Orchard, Devil’s Den, and both Little and Big Round tops. The barn served as a Confederate field hospital for a short time but burned down during the battle.

One soldier from the 77th New York Infantry who observed it wrote, “As we passed the scene of conflict on the left was a scene more than unusually hideous. Blackened remains marked the spot where, on the morning of the 3rd, stood a large barn. It had been used as a hospital. It had taken fire from the shells of the hostile batteries and had quickly burned to the ground. Those of the wounded not able to help themselves were destroyed by the flames, which in a moment spread through the straw and dry material of the building. The crisped and blackened limbs, heads and other portions of bodies lying half consumed among the heaps of ruins and ashes made up one of the most ghastly pictures ever witnessed, even on the field of war.”

In my book “Battle of Gettysburg – The Relics, Artifacts & Souvenirs”, I show similar coin buttons recovered at Gettysburg (see pictures). Because of the shortage of supplies, this was a common alternative for rebel soldiers. I also discuss the Sherfy farm in my book.

The bullet-scarred house, built in the 1840’s, still stands today (see pictures. There are some areas of the Gettysburg battlefield that have few artifacts available for purchase – the Sherfy Farm is one of those areas.