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During the three days of Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, waves of bullets and artillery crashed into Union and Confederate positions. In the panic of the fire fight soldiers, weapons, trees and ground were shredded by projectiles. Once the chaos of our Civil War passed, the battlefield attracted souvenir collectors gathering mementos. In the years following the Civil War, the landscape of the Chickamauga battlefield was altered by relic hunters, as trees were cut down so that bullets and shot could be dug out of them. This would prove a difficulty for contemporary preservationists trying to correlate landscape with events.
One battle relic from Chickamauga was recently on display at the Shiloh Civil War Relic Shop in Shiloh, Tennessee. A log, perhaps a standing tree during the battle, is embedded with two grape shot, a .69 caliber musket ball, a .58 caliber minie ball and possibly more. This piece of history was for sale for $5,500 in 2005.