Burial trench?

[JHamilton]

I found this on Culp's Hill in the ravine. It runs parallel to the stream. It's not wide enough to be a farm lane. What do you think?

 

[Seduzal]

To me lt looks like an old road bed. Could have been a logging road many years ago..

 

[Viper21]

To me lt looks like an old road bed. Could have been a logging road many years ago..

No old growth certainly makes that plausible.

 

[Gettysburg Guide #154]

According to the Elliott Map of burials at Gettysburg, there were many Confederate graves along the western slope of Culp's Hill. The map is available on the Library of Congress Site at https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3824g.cw0333000/?r=0.441,0.741,0.151,0.087,0

It is hard to tell from the photos excatly where you are, but try looking at the map yourself to see if anything seems to line up.

Having said that, it could be an old roadbed of sorts. Most of the trees that were in this area during the battle died because they were so shot full of lead. Access would have been needed to remove them. The same would be true of the crews who removed the Confederate dead in the 1870's. If you move a wagon over the same ground enough times, it creates a pathway, if not an actual road. I cannot say with complete certainty that there was never any logging on Culp's Hill, but unlike Little Round Top, I do not recall anyone discussing logging in this area.

 

[pamc153PA]

At first glance, based on the photos, I would say it's an old lane or path of some sort. Like @Gettysburg Guide #154 said, there are old burial pits on Culp's Hill, but even faint as it is, that looks too long and too linear for a burial pit.

 

[infomanpa]

Is it possibly an erosional feature caused by drainage? It would be interesting to see after a rainfall.

 

[Tom Elmore]

Maybe both, a burial pit and a pre-war and/or post-war logging path. Lengthy burial pits were numerous on the hill, presumably where there were no abundant rock outcroppings, such as along an old logging path. It may depend on the exact location on the hill to determine if heavy fighting occurred in the vicinity.

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/confederate-mass-graves-on-culp's-hill.168133/#post-2186673

 

[JHamilton]

It's right here

 

[Patrick H]

When I was about 15 years old, I came across a similar earthwork on some undeveloped land that my family owned. The land was known to have been used in different ways at different times: A fairgrounds, a Home Guard fort location, an encampment, a farm. The small earthwork that I found consisted of a very narrow and shallow swale (smaller than the one in your photos) running along the contour of a hill and roughly parallel to a power line right of way. I had always done my camping and hiking along the ridge on the OTHER side of the hollow from this shallow trench, so it was a real discovery for me. It was not in the correct location to be a remnant of the earthen fort, and it would have preceded contour plowing by many, many decades. As has been suggested here, it was probably a remnant of a mule road or a trail. These discoveries are interesting, and we very often must be in the right location, at just the right time of day, with just the right weather conditions and foliage conditions to see them. They can go unobserved for a very long time. Then, too, a lot of folks just generally aren't very observant, so they miss features of this sort.

 

[James N.]

View attachment 396631It's right here

Aren't those UNION graves? (I'm aware of but unfamiliar with that particular map.) If it's an actual burial trench I would've expected it to have been for Confederate burials.

 

[treebie2000]

Aren't those UNION graves? (I'm aware of but unfamiliar with that particular map.) If it's an actual burial trench I would've expected it to have been for Confederate burials.

No, those are Confederate graves (per Elliott's key).

 

[Lubliner]

It couldn't be an entrenchment guarding a crossing over the stream?
Lubliner.

 

[8thFlorida]

View attachment 396631It's right here

Amazing find

 

[treebie2000]

It couldn't be an entrenchment guarding a crossing over the stream?
Lubliner.

If [U]JHamilton[/U] placed it on the Elliott map correctly, it probably wouldn't be an entrenchment (assuming the original map shows the correct sites of the burial trenches). The feature crosses several burial trenches shown on the map. Had there been works there I don't think they would have dug burial trenches across them. They would have simply thrown the dead into the works and covered them over. Job complete....half the work.

 

[Gettysburg Guide #154]

If [U]JHamilton[/U] placed it on the Elliott map correctly, it probably wouldn't be an entrenchment (assuming the original map shows the correct sites of the burial trenches). The feature crosses several burial trenches shown on the map. Had there been works there I don't think they would have dug burial trenches across them. They would have simply thrown the dead into the works and covered them over. Job complete....half the work.

Bear in mind that the "works" on Culp's Hill were really not trenches. They are breast works, piles of rocks and logs (actually some soldiers reported using cord wood that was found in the area). Bodies could not be thrown into the works and covered up. But I would agree that the map shows the location of the pathway to be east of the works. One theory that occurred to me (albeit unsupported by evidence at this point) is that this might be the remains of a trail used when the Confederate bodies were removed in the 1870's.

 

[8thFlorida]

And this is the reason we honor our Confederate Dead with monuments. They were buried in shallow trench graves.

 

[Woods-walker]

View attachment 396631It's right here

Is this the actual beginning and end or just an illustration where it is located and the direction?

 

[speedylee]

I found this on Culp's Hill in the ravine. It runs parallel to the stream. It's not wide enough to be a farm lane. What do you think?
View attachment 395470

View attachment 395471

View attachment 395472

If the monument that is somewhat hidden in the middle image is the Confederate 2nd Maryland (really the 1st Maryland), then this could be the continuation of a burial trench. There were some Confeds buried very close to where that monument stands today. I don't know how far the trench extended.