Devil's Den at Gettysburg: Battlefield Live

and we're a top Devils then here we are thanks for joining us this is the American Battlefield trust Facebook live 155 in case you weren't watching before I'm Gary Adelman that's Chris White behind the camera we've got Connor Townsend behind another camera over there we don't take chances we do it all again we've got Dan Davis we're back with doug downs but first let me bring up timothy h smith my Civil War pal and he's going to talk about something special on this rock Tim okay so this area that we're in right now is generally known as Devil's Den and you probably know that we're not sure exactly when it got its name or why it's called Devil's Den it's a whole chapter in our book about the naming of Devil's Den but it's a wild place filled with large rocks and it's a time of the Civil War devil stands by owned by a local resident John Howe and he lives on Baltimore Street in the town of Gettysburg at the time of the battle and it's one of the more interesting stories that we have after our book was written this rock were staying on right now had been covered with lichen and there was a large tree next to the rock and it I guess the tree blocked the sign and if you come down here after the tree was cut down about ten years ago and then what ended up happening was the lichen sort of disappeared it revealed a rock carving and clearly it says John Howe May the 18th 1867 so the owner of Devil's Den carved his name on this rock a few years after the battle man he owned it literally okay we're already 15 minutes behind on this live dug downs get on up here and let's talk about what we see in here let's get back to a little fighting okay so this is a great Vista for us to look at we are sitting here in Devil's Den we're looking off to the west and you can see that far tree line remember we're talking that this a national on attack there's a wave attack from south to north it's coming from that far our tree line if you want to think about a Domino's Domino number one is Evander laws Alabama Brigade they're going to be coming across this field just to our left right next to them is gonna be Robertson's Texas Brigade they're gonna be coming straight at us across the field and behind them are two George our games under Henry petting and then towards Anderson as they come across this field first things first right out and we can just make out a white barn just through those trees that's where John Bell hood will be wounded the division commanders out in the first 10 to 15 minutes and now what you have is these Alabamans will come up and over big round top and as they do they're going to be targeted by these artillery pieces behind us they're gonna kick off two regiments the 44th and the south and as these Texas Brigade comes across the field they're gonna recognize this divide and there's this piece of land we see right out in front of us and what its gonna do is divide that Texas Brigade so the 3rd Arkansas and the 1st Texas will be off to our right and now we see the 4th and 5th Texas drifting off to our left it'll do the same thing to Benny's Georgia Brigade as they follow them behind half of his brigade will go to the north half of it will go to the south and as we look across the ground we walked across this morning you can see how rough it is with those trees and all those boulders come into that valley and see all the boulders down in there imagine how much harder it is to go ahead and take units through that ground and yet that's the ground that the Confederates would have to attack through in order to attack the southern face of Devil's Den and Little Round Top excellent thanks Doug I'm sorry we're not really interacting with you too much we'll do our best to take your questions connectivity is an issue down amidst the large rocks of Devils done before we go down and get into the den itself I want to point out one particular Rock it's a rock Chris if you could over there undoubtedly a Texan or a Georgian he is lying dead for the camera of Alexander Gardner he is laying right there next to that big rock you can't quite see the big rock in the picture but there are two rocks up above here these two rocks are actually the two rocks right to our right and we're gonna walk over to these two rocks now because you can see a stone wall between them and that is where this soldier will be dragged to by the photographer about 72 yards as we go so let's walk around this big rock here we'll be there in a second you're watching a Civil War trust Facebook live 155 Gettysburg I'm still learning to say American battlefield Trust and Civil War trust interchangeably American Battlefield Trust is the umbrella organization for the Civil War trust and the Revolutionary War trust thanks for joining us be sure to check out battlefield store you can check out our membership options that we have over there with all kinds of great free content our Steve Stanley battlefield maps we have videos in four videos anything you can think of all free for you and we do hope that you'll click that membership button when you do check out battlefields org in a perfect world we could put the cameras right here so we can line it up crouching next to it most Civil War photos we're taking low to the ground because they're taken in 3d and here is where the photo the photographer moved the body to to right this very spot here I know it's not great with the Sun but you'll have to trust us there was a pool of water in this Rock right where Tim's bag is sitting water doesn't really pool there anymore because some of the rock is broken but here's where the the body was dragged to about 72 yards William fresney doe and Frederick ray discovered this in the 60s and 70s and here you have it he was laying right there and it became one of the most famous the Civil War here's a colorized version of it which is particularly really brings it to life and I think can humanize this soldier unlike the other soldiers photographed at Gettysburg this soldier must have died later he is not bloated he has not succumbed to the horrible um you know visuals of putrefaction and and decomposition like the other you know remains that you see here this became a famous spot here it is taken after nineteen hundred photographers kept taking pictures here in 1867 and then in the 1880s and this one after nineteen hundred and to this day people like to come here and actually marvel that this is where a soldier breathed his last but in this one case one case this soldier died elsewhere and the photographers moved the body it doesn't mean they're moving bodies all over the place or anything it moves they moved it means they move this body and this is the only documented case of soldiers photographers actually moving a body during the Civil War Tim well you know this is one of the most famous photographs of the entire Civil War and lots of people you can download this photograph in a high-resolution on the Library of Congress site it's a fascinating to look into details of the photograph and there's been lots of articles written about this particular photograph people claim that they you know the bodies removed the other way people claimed a few times that they knew who the body is people have written it they're two different bodies they're not the same body bunch of stuff written about it I don't think I believe any of the articles written about it it's pretty well it just seems logical when you look at the photographs that this guy was laying down here moved to this location and our buddy William Frey sonido has written several chapters in his different books on the what we actually know about the move body but I tell ya ever since I've been coming here as a young kid you get this I don't know I'm almost drawn to the spot where this soldier was positioned and often as a kid I would lay down like the soldier at the spot bought myself and get my picture there taken too and I've seen people you know person after person after person do it with no coaxing it's just you came up here they see the photograph and then they emulate the position of the body it's sort of staging it just as the camera staged it in 1863 that's really cool and I'll just say before Tim shows this picture you know engage with your battlefield in the legal manner in which you can there's no rulebook on exactly how to interact on a battlefield we've all seen people pass out lash out laugh cry every every bit of human emotion just like during the battle except decidedly less terrifying um you know can be seen when you visit a battlefield so engage respectively but but do what what feels right to you as long as it's legal when you're on a battlefield to me I lay down in the spot the first time I ever came and I've done it scores of times since then that is not for some people I'm to do remember the soldier didn't actually die here he was only dragged here Tim well you know when I was young I used to lay down like the soldier and get my picture taken the same spot and here is a photograph I want to give a shout-out to my son Sam and so Sam is positioned like the soldier at the time it was alright because he was old enough to know he was 2 years old I think at that time I'd like to request that all the photos we show henceforth being crinkly plastic and positioned in the Sun we're gonna keep going down here thanks Tim so we are what it's called a top devil stand down there is a place called the slaughter plan that's the big rocks over there you know a regiments of two three four hundred coming through that position watch your step here as we go huh go down here this is the large formation of rocks at Devil's Den probably the largest on the battlefield or at least among the largest on the battlefield and certainly the most famous the rocks of Devil's Den as far as what Devil's Den actually is people do not agree on that people have been arguing about it since you know after the Civil War we're gonna talk about that a little bit as we get down there but just check this out I'd like to pause here sometimes just to show that this is Devil's Den is the only place in the Gettysburg movie where they actually filmed stuff where it actually happened most of the movie is filmed off the battlefield but the capture of Smith's battery was shot right up there and right here as Tim likes to say you have some Confederates coming up here and coming up on these very rocks and shooting and famously one guy gets shot off the rock and he will go flying off these rocks right here they no doubt had some sort of a mattress or a pad for him to land on it and over there so for you Gettysburg movie fans this is shot right here yeah undoubtedly it would be part of the 17th Georgia Infantry that crosses ground during the fighting and this is what they came up against and this is what they had to cross interline a battle and that's really difficult for to us to imagine today one other thing the rocks at Gettysburg are called diabase and according to the Pennsylvania Geological Survey they are two hundred and 1.2 million years old two hundred and 1.2 million and thirteen years old because thirteen years ago that's when we learned that number uh-huh let's see so here we are at the cross the UH the the big rocks of Devil's Den I like to talk about the guy in the second georgia that said that his friends were shot by the almost vertical fire from the blue-coated regulars coming down from the top he identified this very spot on this road near the Devil's Den sign as where it happened here um should we rigidity original den real quick Doug did you have something to say Sol I think this is a really good place for us to stop only because as you sit right in here imagine all the chaos going around you we talked about soldiers and most likely from the 99th Pennsylvania shooting at the Confederates on this side of it but if you turn and just look off to our right at the same time now of a sudden you'd see Little Round Top all ablaze the idea that you were sitting down in this valley with Union soldiers coming up the valley Confederates coming through from the West what I've seen a carnage down here why your attention may have been drawn up to the Union soldiers up above you this way too so wherever direction you turn there is no place for safety you can imagine why they use these rocks and these boulders as places where they might find some cover and concealment out in this battlefield that's that's really interesting and by the way we know the sun's over there and despite you think we have some Herculean efforts to really fix things we can not move the position of the Sun we'll do the best we can so don't post on there hey it's washed out we know we're doing the best we can come on over here now some people say they see The Devil's Den sign and assume all the rocks are sort of that's Devil's Den but Tim the original guy who really popularized Devil's Den and whatnot thought of something more specific John Bachelder who was sort of a government historian of the Gettysburg National Military Park and the Commission when it started he's the guy who actually wrote about it and sort of suggested to Devil's Den is not this large mass of rocks it's a very specific spot a hole in the ground or a spring which is at the base the devil's den let's walk over and see it then you want to walk over and take a look at it okay Wow Gary will really enjoy this when he gets here because not often is there actually water coming out of the spring it's pretty much long ago much as there was in 1890s as you can see right here this area is what is referred to when they specifically when somebody mentions the devil's dad and their looks what's interesting there's caves that sort of run through there and you can actually climb in and climb down and around and come out on the other side or go to another cave and come up and on top of the rocks so obviously kids love Devil's Den I love Devil's Den when I was a kid I think Gary liked Devil's Den when he was a little older than just a kid in fact it's 30 years ago this month was my first trip here I did not know enough about Devil's Den to know that this was the original vent or that there wasn't being an argument about it but I did check out the dead sharpshooter walk around these rocks and man that I loved it there are six different ways in and out and we're gonna it's gonna be fun to see the cameraman crawl through there just kidding but let me be clear this is not Devil's Den real quick that is Devil's Den there's a cave back in there and John Bachelder said it's a cave under rocks it's very difficult to get into and there's a spring that flows from it and that's the original Devil's Den now as we turn back out I'm gonna ask Tim to talk about it because man there are big bears here there are big raccoons here there are big snakes here in the early stories of Devil's Den most are told by a guy named Immanuel Bushman so Tim if you'll lead us out let's talk about some of the animals associated with Devil's Den so uh Devil's Den is pretty famous for you know being a place which is a cave where animals live but the most famous creature that lives in Devil's Den is the black snake and according to a manual Bushman writing about in 1875 there was one large snake and according to the account he was big around in the man's waist he was 15 or 20 feet long and he was the devil and this was his den so people in Gettysburg always referred to it as Devil's Den and according to Bush his grandmother said that the Native Americans before the European settlers used to talk about the snakes down here and the one big snake and he said his name was Heep big snake that's great there's also supposedly they called it raccoon den as well there was a man named de Graaf and two nasty large raccoon charges on him for trespassing the story is he was almost killed there's another story about a Native American an Indian guy that you know came upon a bear and he reached down his throat and ripped out his heart and the bear died there's all sorts of great stories about this there is Native American fighting documented within a mile of this position the Battle of the crows supposedly maybe a hundred Indians or Native Americans engaged at the time so man you can go back and forth with the stories of myth and legend and today is July 2nd 2018 it's Gettysburg 155 tonight Tim Chris and I will all be at the Gettysburg Heritage Center Tim's doing John Burns Chris is doing the we field and I'm talking about Devil's Den if you want to learn more about Devil's Den to download the Civil War trust Gettysburg I'm sorry yeah berrak is will soon be called American Battlefield trust Gettysburg battle app we have a specific one just on Devil's Den in Little Round Top called the day to app so if you want to learn more there's lots on our website battlefields org and there's lots on the app store as well whether you're an Android user or a smartphone user we're gonna keep moving here as we go from the devil's bath right here this is supposedly maybe where the snake sea he would go and kill and capture little kids around Gettysburg unsuspecting little kids and whatnot he would go up to the devil's kitchen serve him up bathe here afterward and then hang out in The Devil's Den I don't know it's probably called Devil's Den because of the rocky nature of the ground you look at Devil's anything around the country it's all rocky areas the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers around here used to call rocks the devil because they were supposedly put there by the devil to inhabit their fields and mess with the rock formations at this point anything that here Doug no is the answer because who cares about this stuff it's only Tim and I anyway here Tim's walking toward the front of The Devil's Den this is the most famous rock formation of The Devil's Den it's known as the Table Rock we've got also two other good rocks named around here the laud rock the Table Rock the run up Rock because kids and some immature adults like to run up that rock without using their hands as well we've got all sorts of other stuff going on around here so for the table rock in a nutshell I know Chris is dying to do the Austin powers line at that point this is this big rock how that massive rock and I've seen estimations regime two hundred and eight hundred six hundred tons before that rock there's one point of that rock sloping down where it's it's pointing touching another rock and that point is about this big it's about the size of my hand the Park Service became concerned about this over the years and they hire an engineering firm in the 70s and made hash marks on it to see if the rock is moving they determine absolutely the table rock will fall you know and you could imagine what that's gonna look like hopefully nobody's under it when it comes down I'm happy to say in about 40 years the hash marks have not moved that rock has not shifted in the last 40 years now we were talking earlier on the last live and by the way look at the live we did this morning of hoods charge um look at the live that we did last year at Gettysburg 154 Daughtery on your desktop you can find an easy playlist under videos on the American Battlefield trust Facebook page on your on your mobile devices a little harder to find but bear with us we did Devil's Den last year as well we did a little round top last year as well so you can fill in anything we don't talk about here but with all the tourism going around here and in the 1890s you didn't take a camera with you you went to the camera and the camera was here Tim what did the local people do because they knew a camera would be here oh you know it's fascinating Devil's Den in the commercialism that surrounded it it's really hard to fathom today but Devils that became very popular because of the weird eerie appearance of the rocks besides the fact that there was heavy fighting here and because there were so many rocks and was hard to bury bodies bodies were continually eroding out of the ground and people were finding bones from the soldiers that were involved in the fighting years after the battle so cameraman William Tipton specifically and the Mumper family set up a photographic studio over here remember we mentioned by 1893 there was an electric railway and by 1894 this place was very crowded and cameramen arrived here they set up their photograph photographers equipment in front of the rocks and we're taking photographs of people in front of the table rock and because of that local people began to carve their name on the rocks of Devil's Den okay and I think I can find a picture of that as I go along in it because they knew give me a sec Connor I'm going to show you a better picture here anyway they knew that if they their name on the table Rock first let me show it to Kristen I'll show it to Connor here that their name would appear in thousands if not tens of thousands of photos now you look at that rock now and on the right day you might be able to see the H and the CH here you can't see the more restocks and if you can tell the Sun is actually cooperating you can see that there are big splotches there because in the 1890s specifically 1894 the US government came in and carefully removed them and that meant taking chisels and chiseling into the rocks and for a good 15 years the rocks looked splotched where they removed the graffiti they did that because they figured you know it's not like these were soldiers putting their initials in there this was local graffiti and they figured if they didn't scratch him out then that everybody would continue to do it and they were probably right um happily for us there are still a few left that the government missed or that came after the government chiselers were here actually and you can still see some of those and some of those are connected with the locals such as John Hawkes 1867 carving that one escaped the chiselers he owned Devil's Den I think his should have been allowed to stay Jim yes okay good let's keep moving here anybody else jump in as you go we're actually gonna make this a short live we're not going to go too much farther but let's pin off to the right real quick as we walk we're not gonna take that swear Tipton had a spark that's where the trolley would stop right above that cross that bridge over there you had spring water you had two places to eat to get drink drinks made of gin you could get your photo taken a small tin type there you could come over here and get it this is a very commercialized place in the 1890s and there was a big fight in the late 1890s as to whether this would become a giant tourist attraction or a historic shrine and this eventually went to the US Supreme Court as the US government condemned the trolley successfully and that's set the case law yes the government can condemn land for purposes of a historical park so also not bad that we're down here because now we start to see some of these other Union monuments that come down here these Union regiments imagine if you're a member of the fourth Maine you started the day and you were up on top of Devil's Den and you're gonna get orders to come down in this valley if you're the commander the fourth man you know this is a bad deal and yet nonetheless in order to go ahead and stave off the defense of the Union line they're gonna come down the backside of this and now they're gonna be down in this valley they're gonna accept a worse position because that's what the rest of the army needs for them to do and we'd find other units that get sent down here you'd have the 140th you're the 40th New York down in the middle of this valley that would come from the wheat field to be sent down in here imagine coming from another good position and being sent down into this valley of death sitting between these rocks and this crag of boulders known as Devil's Den and the high ground that's Little Round Top that's great two more things before we wrap up here at Devil's Den and man could we spend eight hours here I'd love to give an eight-hour tour Devil's Den again I haven't done in a long time but the fourth main Monument just real quick in the early 1890s the colonel designed it but they left the Colonel's name off the monument a water was gathering into the base of it they got the casualty figures wrong they put the flank markers in the wrong position so that they were facing in the wrong direction and red diamonds of the 3rd Corps First Division weren't a cent word put on right they were falling off so in about 1895 they moved the flank marker so that it would be in the right position and the regiment would be facing the right way they took the red diamonds and put them on with cement instead of gypsum they put the Colonel's name on it fix the caste figures and in the most useless thing will tell you during this anniversary you might be second most they dug this little trench right here which has been allowing water to drain out of this hall and has been staining the rock ever since what does that teach us about the Battle of Gettysburg nothing but understanding the battlefield after the Civil War when post-war features dotted the landscape this is the battlefield the veterans knew they knew this battlefield the 1890s battlefield better than they knew the 1863 battlefield this is the one they remember they weren't being shot at let's take a few steps here and conclude over here because we said why Devil's Den got its name we're really not sure about it but a lot of its associated with animals and whatnot and Tim at a distance actually spotted something over there he's gonna go get it he's gonna try John through there no matter the ticks no matter what's in there he's gonna go over to that rock and pull something out this is not staged this was already there I can see it from here let's check it out hope he's not still here yeah hey be careful so it doesn't fall apart let's see how oh it's not a tiny one oh yeah so look at this The Devil's Den is aptly named what is this hold on hold it closer to the camera so we can say look it's 26 feet long and here it is so the snakes often hang out in the rocks of Devil's Den the largest one I've seen in this area was about 11 feet long of course an 11 foot long black snake that's the most common the northern black racer is still only about this thick it's not like it was gonna swallow me but I did beat a hasty retreat even though it's not poisonous there are copperheads here but they're very rarely seen in this area but they love this rock and this is not the first time we found a snake skin here and with this I don't think we can top it Tim thank you all for being here thanks for your comments um thanks for engaging with us on Facebook and of course thanks for supporting battlefield preservation you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 22,784

Rating: 4.831502 out of 5

Keywords: historic preservation, American Battlefield Trust, Battle of Gettysburg Live, Civil War Trust Facebook Live, American Battlefield Trust Facebook Live, Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day at Gettysburg, Civil War Trust, Devil's Den

Id: OZyRhdUfQ_A

Length: 23min 55sec (1435 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 16 2018