'Honey, I want to buy a war log'

Ed Jones and the "war log" he bought at the Gettysburg Civil War Show on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, I ever-so-briefly mulled working up the courage to ask Mrs. Banks if I could buy a Gatling gun. Now I want a "war log" just like the one Ed Jones, a Civil War collector/dealer from Archdale, N.C., bought at the Gettysburg Civil War show Saturday morning for 300 bucks. There are three bullets visible in the 5-foot hunk of tree, shot up at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in May 1864. And who knows what else may be inside this thing? A key to the city of Richmond? Jefferson Davis' false teeth? Another copy of Lee's Special Order 191? Jones, a descendant of several Confederate soldiers, plans to haul this log back his home in the mountains of North Carolina to display in his relic room. If I bought one, I would display it in our garage, next to the cot that I would be sleeping on for several months ... or years. Or forever.

Bullets from the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse embedded in the "war log."