Devil's Den#Description

Devil's Den was formed with Little Round Top (to the east) and Big Round Top (southeast) by periglacial frost wedging of the igneous landform formed 200 million years ago when a diabase sill intruded through the Triassic Gettysburg plain.{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Andrew |year= 2006|edition=Eleventh printing |orig-year=1962 |title= GEOLOGY and the Gettysburg Campaign |url= http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/education/es5/es5.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20000818232134/http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/education/es5/es5.pdf |url-status= dead |archive-date= August 18, 2000 |location=Pennsylvania |publisher=Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey |access-date=2010-02-19 }} {{Rp|13}} The feature acquired its foreboding name prior to the 1863 battle. Throughout the mid-19th century, local residents believed that the crevices between the boulders were home to a large snake. The size of the reptile varied between accounts, but reports ranged from {{Convert|8|ft|m|abbr=on}} to as large as {{Convert|15|ft|m|abbr=on}}. The snake became known as "The Devil", and thus the area he was believed to inhabit became known as "The Devil's Den".{{Cite news |date=Jan 23, 1932 |title=Famous Snake |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qcQlAAAAIBAJ&pg=4283,1140597&dq=round-top+quarry+gettysburg&hl=en |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |publisher=Times and News Publishing Company |access-date=2011-03-15 |quote=In September, 1881, the shy blacksnake of Round Top was seen by Hiram Warren, who states his length to be fifteen feet. For over a quarter century this reptile has been known to reside in this neighborhood—it was named 'The Devil', and the place assumed to be its den became "The Devil's Den.}} [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uMk9AAAAIBAJ&sjid=JjcMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5682,5240301&dq=devil's-den+snake+gettysburg&hl=en] {{Cite book |last=Bachelder |first=John B. |author-link=John B. Bachelder |year=1873 |title=Gettysburg: What to See and How to See It |page=tbd{{Verify source|date=October 2011}} |quote=it was a name given to the locality before the battle.}} (quoted by Adelman and Smith, p. 7) Some soldiers' accounts used the name "Devil's Cave",{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} and a depression on a boulder that collects water resembles a flying horned bat.{{Citation needed|reason=Image needed|date=October 2011}}

On July 2, 1863, Smith's Union battery, with six Napoleon smooth-bores, used the hill to counterfire on Confederate artillery prior to McLaws' Assault at 5:30 pm.{{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Henry J |author-link=Henry J. Hunt |format=Civil War Reference transcript |title=The Second Day at Gettysburg… |url=http://www.civilwarreference.com/articles/detail.php?article=129 |access-date=2011-10-22 |quote=A cross-road connecting the Taneytown and Emmitsburg roads runs along the northern base of Devil's Den. From its Plum Run crossing to the Peach Orchard is 1100 yards. For the first 400 yards of this distance, there is a wood on the north and a wheat-field on the south of the road, beyond which the road continues for 700 yards to the Emmitsburg road along Devil's Den ridge, which slopes on the north to Plum Run, on the south to Plum Branch. [Rose Run] … The angle at the Peach Orchard is thus formed by the intersection of two bold ridges, one from Devil's Den, the other along the Emmitsburg road |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120724075501/http://www.civilwarreference.com/articles/detail.php?article=129 |archive-date=2012-07-24 |url-status=dead }} Against Hood's Assault that started at 4 pm, Devil's Den was defended by Birney's 1st Division as the far left position from The Peach Orchard Salient of the III Corps. The hill was captured when the "First Texas Regiment, having pressed forward to the crest of the hill and driven the enemy from his battery",[http://www.civilwarhome.com/robertsongettysburgor.htm CSA Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson, after action report, Devil's Den] and Anderson's Confederates used the hill for the first attack on The Wheatfield. From near the Slaughter Pen, the 40th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment forced the 2nd & 17th Georgia regiments of Benning's Brigade to retreat to Devil's Den.{{Cite book |last=Gottfried |first=Bradley M |title=Brigades of Gettysburg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IODnzEYdAoYC&pg=PA205 |format=Google Books |access-date=2011-05-25|isbn=9780306811753 |date=2002-12-26 }} Confederate sharpshooters were stationed between the rocks to fire upon Union soldiers at Little Round Top, among their victims being General Stephen H. Weed and Lieutenant Charles E. Hazlett. Hazlett's guns counter-fired upon them, and many were killed from the concussion of air.

The 124th NY monument with Ellis statue was dedicated near Devil's Den in 1884.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/07/03/103621505.pdf] Postbellum avenues were constructed to Devil's Den such as Sickles' Avenue from the west, Crawford Avenue in 1895 (north),{{Cite Gettysburg Commission Reports}}{{Rp|'95}} and Warren Avenue across Plum Run (east). From 1894 to 1916, the Gettysburg Electric Railway operated on a curve crossing Plum Run (Rock Creek) around the south base of the hill with the Tipton Station providing Devil's Den services.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Zz0mAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0v4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3212,4235594&dq=tipton-park+gettysburg&hl=en] In 1916, a Devil's Den boulder was used as a Satterlee Hospital memorial at Philadelphia's Clark Park.{{cite report |last=Collins |first=Jaffe |title=Clark Park Revitalization Project |date=April 2001 |page=5 |publisher=Friends of Clark Park / University City District |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |url=http://www.clarkpark.info/Misc%20PDFs/ClarkParkMasterPlanApril2001%20smaller.pdf |access-date=2010-09-22 |display-authors=etal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719202312/http://www.clarkpark.info/Misc%20PDFs/ClarkParkMasterPlanApril2001%20smaller.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-19 |url-status=dead }}

The nearby 1933 comfort station was demolished in 2009, and its access bridge over Plum Run remains to the east. In 1952, ROTC students conducted a mock battle at the site,[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tY8lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yfIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3114,2205238&dq=devil's-den+gettysburg&hl=en] and the "Devil's Den Access Committee" was formed in 1988.[http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Devil's+Den%22+Gettysburg&tbs=nws:1,ar:1&source=newspapers] The site's ID Tablet was designated a Historic District Contributing Structure in 2004,{{Citation |last=Cope |first=Emmor |author-link=Emmor Cope |title=Devil's Den - Cast Iron Site ID Tablet |url=http://www.hscl.cr.nps.gov/insidenps/report.asp?PARK=GETT&RECORDNO=211 |work=(structure ID 73, LCS ID tbd) List of Classified Structures |publisher=National Park Service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211204539/http://www.hscl.cr.nps.gov/insidenps/report.asp?PARK=GETT&RECORDNO=211 |archive-date=2013-12-11 |url-status=dead }} and the Devil's Den barricade is structure WA35 on the Gettysburg National Military Park's List of Classified Structures.{{cite web |title=Devil's Den Barricade |url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMHKK6 |website=Waymarking |publisher=Waymarking |access-date=20 October 2018}}

File:Confederate Dead at Devil's Den Gettysburg.jpg|Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter - Post-battle Confederate sharpshooter body staged{{Cite web |last=Groves |first=James C. |year=1998 |title=The Devil's Den Sharpshooter Re-Discovered |url=http://www.jamescgroves.com/henry/hcp1a.htm |publisher=JamesCGroves.com |access-date=2011-10-24}} behind the "Devil's Den barricade" illustrating "a sharpshooter…of Devil's Den" such as the one presumed killed by a percussion of a cannon shot from Little Round Top after Weed and Hazlett had been sniped.{{Cite news |date=October 24, 1899 |title=Little Round-Top |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IuMyAAAAIBAJ&pg=5845%2C7540002 |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler |access-date=2011-10-24 |quote=Just before Gen. Crawford made his charge … Gen. Weed said to me: 'Martin, I would rather die on this spot than see those rascals gain one inch of ground. I … started to go down…and saw…Weed, reeling and falling to the ground. … [from] Little Round Top … Rittenhouse had a perfect enfilading fire into Pickett's right flank and used it to the best possible advantage.}} Tenatively identified 2018 as a Georgia soldier.

File:Devil's Den sharpshooter 2018.jpg|The area of Devil's Den where the "Sharpshooter" image was staged. (May 25, 2018)

File:View of dead at Devil's Den, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg|Taken in Devil's Den of PA militiamen playing "Dead" in November 1863!See W. Frassanito "Early Photography at Gettysburg" .pp.294-299

File:Alfred_Waud_by_Timothy_H._O%27Sullivan.jpg|Civil War artist Alfred Waud sketching for the Battle of Gettysburg at Devil's Den.

File:Devil's Den 101215.jpg|Devil's Den in 2015.

File:Devils Den from Little Round Top.jpg|Devil's Den viewed from Little Round Top.

File:1904 Cope map - Gettysburg Electric Railway.png|Devil's Den (left) is across Sickles Av & Plum Run from the trolley railbed.

{{wide image|Devil's Den Gettysburg 1909.jpg|650px|1909 photo of Devil's Den}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.historynet.com/devils-den-gettysburg History.Net :Devil's Den]

{{External media|

|image1=[https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Devils%20Den%2C%20Gettysburg Library of Congress images]

|image2=[https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcd1863/4357248243/ 1933-2009 comfort station]

|image3=[http://civilwarlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/02/news-where-you-go-when-you-gotta-go-is.html Gettysburg Granite comfort station]

}}

{{Battle of Gettysburg}}

Category:Hills of Pennsylvania

Category:Landforms of Adams County, Pennsylvania

Category:Gettysburg Battlefield