What is in this tree?

[Mike Serpa]

Maybe a makeshift lookout platform? Take the ladder up to a horizontal step about half-way up the tree then shinny up to the platform. Also, is that a shovel on the ground?

Fort Brady, James River, VA near Dutch Gap Canal. LOC #32768

 

[Vicksburger]

Excellent eye there. I don't want that guy's job though!

 

[Mike Serpa]

Excellent eye there. I don't want that guy's job though!

I didn't notice the horizontal piece until I was just about to post. I wouldn't want that job either. The way my luck runs a gust of wind would come up and blow me out of the tree!

 

[Vicksburger]

I didn't notice the horizontal piece until I was just about to post. I wouldn't want that job either. The way my luck runs a gust of wind would come up and blow me out of the tree!

I think the guy went on, though, to patent the first portable deer stand! And now his descendants are lying on a beach somewhere in the Bahamas.

 

[Mike Serpa]

I think the guy went on, though, to patent the first portable deer stand! And now his descendants are lying on a beach somewhere in the Bahamas.

Lol!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Yes, great eye! OK, really hate this kind of thing, rats. It's so distracting, stuck smack in the middle of an entire war. What in blazes would be the purpose of that?

If it were easier to get to, you'd be tempted to imagine something to do with the Signal Corp- what, who could say? I'm just looking at how high it is.

 

[FarawayFriend]

Now this is where the term "Crow's Nest" comes from, I think!

 

[dlavin]

good thing the average CW soldier was like 140 lbs because it doesnt look like that tree can hold much weight

 

[samuel orris]

good thing the average CW soldier was like 140 lbs because it doesnt look like that tree can hold much weight

My thoughts exactly. Looks too flimsy to support any sized human.

 

[samuel orris]

. . . On the other hand, it was obviously put there so Somebody had to climb up there.

 

[Mike Serpa]

Now this is where the term "Crow's Nest" comes from, I think!

Lol

. . . On the other hand, it was obviously put there so Somebody had to climb up there.

A skinny 15 yr old?

 

[alan polk]

I agree that it had something to do with the signal corps. It looks like tattered cloth, like an old flag too long in the weather and ripped to shreds. Just a thought though. Thanks for posting!

 

[AndyHall]

good thing the average CW soldier was like 140 lbs because it doesnt look like that tree can hold much weight

Good, then they won't be asking me to go up there.

It has to be a some sort of signaling or observation post, probably thrown up quickly by the troops in the fort. The actual Signal Corps structures tend to be more formal.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Part of a hoop skirt and a strong wind perhaps ?

 

[UCVRelics]

After looking very close at the photo the distance between the 2 lower one and the distance between the upper 4 are all the same. In my former Military mind I going with aiming points. The guns are in the defilade position in the photo. These big guns very seldom fired line of site shots but were used to lob the shells in indirect fire into position, fort, etc much as a motor would. These would have to used to fire on a predetermined points.

 

[Drew]

Great picture!

I think the thing on the ground that looks like a shovel is in fact too big to be a shovel. Maybe a tree branch that looks like one from afar.

 

[Mike Serpa]

Great picture!

I think the thing on the ground that looks like a shovel is in fact too big to be a shovel. Maybe a tree branch that looks like one from afar.

Yes, it does look big for a shovel.

 

[FarawayFriend]

After looking very close at the photo the distance between the 2 lower one and the distance between the upper 4 are all the same. In my former Military mind I going with aiming points. The guns are in the defilade position in the photo. These big guns very seldom fired line of site shots but were used to lob the shells in indirect fire into position, fort, etc much as a motor would. These would have to used to fire on a predetermined points.

Very good point, but I think the structure up in the trees is three dimensional and kind of woven in to the branches, like a basket. I think it is build to contain something or someone. But the "bottom" seems to be just a stick or a plank at best, not a platform to stand on. So if there was someone to enter up there, he would have had to be always alert, because one wrong move would have caused him to fall ... pretty smart when it comes to keeping the guy at watch awake.
On the other hand, whoever would stand up here would be the perfect target for a sharpshooter ... so instead of becoming more clear what it is I become increasingly confused about it!

 

[donna]

It sure looks unsafe to get up there. It would take very skinny person to climb that. Neat photo.

 

[Patrick H]

This is nothing more than a guess: Maybe it's a lattice work, fashioned to hold leafy twigs, etc., so as to provide camouflage for a thin man standing in the crotch of the tree. His job would be either lookout or observer--giving reports on where the artillery projectiles were landing and how to make corrections in aim. If the tree height itself isn't enough to scare you, imagine how high it must have seemed over the bottomland at the foot of that bluff!