First Shot

This is a picture of the same cannon that fired the first cannon shot at the Battle of Gettysburg. As you can see, the rifling down the barrel is still very visible. To my knowledge, this is the only cannon that can claim to be the first one that was shot. However, many different people claim to be the first ones to fire the absolute first shot. In my opinion, the best evidence for this comes from a Union cavalry sergeant who is reported to have grabbed a trooper’s Sharps carbine and fired into a column of Confederate infantry who was marching up the road. According to the report, he missed completely. However, this is the cannon, at least the barrel that actually fired the first artillery shot of the battle. It still stands today on the field in Gettysburg, approximately at the same spot that it was fired at. I wanted to take this picture because I had seen other photos of different cannons at this angle, in order to study the rifling and how it has remained over time. I figured that since this was the first shot cannon, that my opportunity would never have been better than this one.