Swain Reeves credited his canteen for deflecting the bullet that struck him at Petersburg and preventing an even more severe injury.

Swain Reeves was a corporal in Company A, 7th N.J. Volunteer Infantry and was wounded at Gettysburg in July, 1863 and again at Petersburg in June, 1864. The last wound confined him to Lincoln Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Swain Reeves enlisted as a Private on 23 August 1861, and then joined Company A, 7th Infantry Regiment New Jersey on 23 Aug 1861. Promoted to Full Corporal on 18 Jun 1864, and mustered out Company A, 7th Infantry Regiment New Jersey on 7 Oct 1864 at Trenton, NJ. (Historical Data Systems, comp., American Civil War Soldiers [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999)

http://blog.genealogytoday.com/2012/01/us-civil-war-jerseymen-museum-exhibit.html

This, and other artifacts from the U. S. Civil War, can be seen at The Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

From The Civil War Parlor on Tumblr