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Severed arm grabs spotlight at Civil War museum

By WTOP Staff

DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — A well-preserved human forearm purportedly found shortly after the 1862 Battle of Antietam is grabbing the Halloween spotlight at the National Museum of Civil War History in Frederick.

The naturally mummified relic went on display Thursday as museum officials released findings of a scientific and historical investigation.

Smithsonian Institution anthropologists who examined the arm couldn’t identify its owner or determine its authenticity as a battlefield relic. They say it belonged to a white man of about 16 who most likely was from the New York-Pennsylvania-Ohio area, based on forensic evidence of his diet.

The arm was donated to the Civil War museum in 2012. It had been displayed for decades at a roadside museum in Sharpsburg as “The Arm of the Unknown Soldier.”

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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