After the battle the Provost Marshal attempted to secure the battlefield. The government got dibs (title) to all the battlefield litter. This meant any gun, accoutrements, field equipment left there. Looters were to be arrested.
However, countless civilians wandered the battlefield often to succor the wounded. It is estimated that several thousand responded to help or play lookey loo. Many pretended to help but used that guise to carry off souvenirs. there is a target telescope rifle that was purported to have been found at Devil's Den. It bore the initials HCP and some think it was Henry Clay Poor of the First Texas that fought there alongside with the Third Arkansas. Poor was wounded there but survived the war. That gun now belongs to the Gettysburg Museum.
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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt. Molon Labe!
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