East Cemetery Hill was 25 feet higher?

cwbuff

Corporal
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Location
Virginia
Yesterday, I was on the 10AM Ranger led Battle Walk on East Cemetery Hill. The last part of the walk involved walking back to the top of the hill from 25th Ohio monument. When we got the top, the Ranger, commenting on being winded after climbing the hill, said that during the battle the hill was 25 feet higher than it is today. He said that the material was removed to use as fill for the large water tanks toward the town. While I can see that the tanks are sitting on fill above the natural terrain, I really have a hard believing that hill was lowered by 25 feet. That would mean that many of the artillery lunettes are reproductions.

Has anyone heard of this before?
 
I knew that it was taller but I didn't think that it was that drastic a change. That's a major difference and is even larger than the change in elevation of LRT.

Ryan
 
25' would be to the top of Howard's equestrian statue. So if some material was removed, when did that occur?
 
I have never heard of ECH being altered in elevation. I know that Culp's Hill is roughly 25' higher than East Cemetery Hill. Maybe that is what they were referring to. They used a lot of fill to level the land around the middle school just below ECH. However I doubt that fill came from that Hill. Using historic photographs, there doesn't appear to be much change in that area.

I am still amazed they built that school where they did. Building a school at the base of one of the most historically important hills in the United States is mind boggling.
 
No one I was with on the walk believed it either. One guy has spent anniversary week at Gettysburg for 46 years in a row.
 
Wasn't East Cemetery Hill the first battlefield land that was protected and it was done shortly after the battle.
 
Here is the relevant piece of the Warren Map (thanks for the tip). Contour interval is 20 feet. There is no way that 25' was taken off East Cemetery Hill.
WarrenMap.jpeg
 
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