Devil's Den as the Soldiers Saw It

[Gettysburg Greg]

You may have seen my recent post and discussion regarding Weaver's series of photographs in the Devil's Den showing live soldiers posing as corpses. Included among Weaver's photographs taken in November of 1863, is the panorama below that shows us the Den just as it appeared to the soldiers four months earlier. The soldiers seen standing on the rocks are the same men seen posing as bodies in my previous post. Compared to my similar modern photo, you can see how many of the rocks were removed in order to construct the road ca. 1900.

 

[Bee]

Poor rocks -- who needs a stinkin' road I wonder where they moved the rocks?

 

[Gettysburg Greg]

Poor rocks -- who needs a stinkin' road I wonder where they moved the rocks?

I think some were ground up to make the road, Bee. Others were just dynomited.

 

[Wallyfish]

If I remember correctly, there is a rock up the path from the Trough Rock that has many holes drilled in it. I am pretty sure that if that rock was destroyed it would be reduced to rubble.

Now some large rocks were used as bases for monuments. I know that the bottom rocks on the 5th New Hampshire monument on Ayers Avenue are from Gettysburg while the top rock is from NH and is granite as I recall.

There are a couple stone quarries in and around the battlefield so those rocks that are no longer along both Crawford and Warren Avenues as well as the rocks that were along the old trolley line could be anywhere.

 

[8thFlorida]

I wonder if some of the rocks were moved to create the current path to the top? That would be my guess but I don't know how the National Park Service created the trails.