1920s Photograph Gettysburg Battery E Monument Two Men & Cannons For Sale

This vintage black-and-white photograph documents a visit to the Gettysburg National Military Park, capturing two young men posed alongside the artillery pieces flanking a stone monument dedicated to Battery E of the Fifth U.S. Artillery. The bronze plaque affixed to the central granite marker identifies the unit as part of the Army of the Potomac's Artillery Reserve, First Brigade, commanded by Colonel R. O. Tyler. The inscription recounts the battery's actions on July 2 and 3, 1863, when it took position near the Emmitsburg Road and the Peach Orchard, supported infantry operations, and helped repel the Confederate charge known today as Pickett's Charge. The plaque also records the unit's casualties: one officer and one enlisted man killed, one officer and ten men wounded, and twenty horses killed or disabled.The two visitors, dressed in light-colored shirts, dark suspenders, and dark trousers typical of working-class or rural American attire in the early twentieth century, interact casually with the historic cannons—one leaning against the barrel on the left, the other seated or standing near the gun on the right. The scene unfolds along a paved road in the foreground, with a grassy field, a split-rail fence, and mature trees stretching into the background beneath a bright, clear sky. The composition reflects the era's tradition of battlefield pilgrimage, when tourists traveled to Gettysburg to walk the ground their fathers or grandfathers had fought over. The photograph's silver gelatin tonality, slight contrast range, and informal posing suggest it was made with a consumer camera, likely a folding roll-film model, during the 1920s or 1930s. The image preserves both the commemorative landscape of America's most famous Civil War battlefield and the personal, vernacular record of two young men encountering that history firsthand.