What is in this tree?

[Mike Serpa]

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!

I think leaves or twigs would make it more conspicuous thus defeating the purpose of camouflage. If this was used when leaves were on the tree it would have natural camouflage. It does look very shaky whatever it is. You wouldn't catch me up there!

 

[Mike Serpa]

Maybe a nest for the pterodactyl?

From a post by @Stony.

 

[FarawayFriend]

Maybe a nest for the pterodactyl?
View attachment 101919
From a post by @Stony.

That's it!
And the remains of the beak are what is to be seen in the front and which you had at first thought might be a shovel!

 

[Mike Serpa]

That's it!
And the remains of the beak are what is to be seen in the front and which you had at first thought might be a shovel!

Most definitely the upper beak!

 

[BillO]

A flat board to sit on.

 

[rebelatsea]

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!

I don't think he would have lasted very long in the blast arcs of the guns just behind him

 

[Patrick H]

I don't think he would have lasted very long in the blast arcs of the guns just behind him

This is a good example of why I was never in the artillery!

 

[Story]

His job would be either lookout or observer--giving reports on where the artillery projectiles were landing and how to make corrections in aim.

I'd second the Observation Post (OP), more for early/earliest warning of approaching targets as well as shot correction. Fort Brady was built to contain CS ironclads (see

).

A Union U.S. Civil War earthworks fort established on the James River in October 1864 after the capture of Fort Harrison (4) by Union forces. This was an earthworks fort overlooking the James River with 10 gun emplacements and a central bombproof magazine. The fort was garrisoned by Company C, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery.

The fort was frequently under fire from Confederate gun batteries across the James River. An attack on 23 Jan 1865 resulted in one gun knocked out of action and three men killed along with forty injured by flying splinters. Eleven Confederate gunboats were able to get by the fort in this action but they were turned back by the Union fleet down river. As the Confederate gunboats retreated back by Fort Brady the fort poured shells down on the fleet.

The fort was abandoned in April 1865 after the capture of Richmond.

http://fortwiki.com/Fort_Brady_(1)

Location of Dutch Gap
https://www.google.com/maps/place/D...8d7cdce513c88e!8m2!3d37.3770927!4d-77.3572027
Period map
http://www.beyondthecrater.com/wp-c...0/18641022JamesRiverSkirmishNearFortBrady.png


The left side of the battery looks like anti-Ironclad guns, the right side counter-battery. If we're looking south, across the James and period images like this are reversed, those cannon on the left were actually pointed upriver - right?

My guess is that the OP was also manned to detect the location of Confederate batteries on the other side of the James by their muzzle flash. Once a range and bearing were giving, there would be no need for the soldier to stay up there.

 

[USS ALASKA]

The trees in the background look like they still have foliage while the ones in question seem to have been stripped bare.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Story]

Maybe a makeshift lookout platform?

A flat board to sit on.

How about just a couple of simple horizontals for the Observer, to that he could brace his spyglass when scanning the opposite shoreline for Confederate batteries?

Same principle as Winslow Homer's sniper -
Expired Image Removed

but with one of these (just the optics tube, not the tripod)

 

[Story]

Another view. Look closely. 'Do you see what I see....'

Citation & such for above https://www.loc.gov/item/2012646746/

I don't think he would have lasted very long in the blast arcs of the guns just behind him

1. The tree appears to be between two firing positions, and even if it's in front of the firing line the blast cones wouldn't wash over that elevated position. Too close. Might get noisy, tho.

2. Look to the left of the red line I've drawn - see what looks like a rope ladder rigged at 60 degrees?

 

[USS ALASKA]

Are the cross bars way up in the tree a pre-radio form of IFF? "Hey everyone on our side! DON'T shoot this way!"? Although that allows for a lot of deception...

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Story]

Could also be a marker, sure - but that strikes me as just icing on the cake. I'd be hoisting Blair Witch Project style branch figures (Joke here - http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5017/3/16x9/960.jpg ) up in the trees if it would prevent getting shelled by one's own Navy, but since Fort Brady was a fixed and known position on the north bank (see maps above) that would leave everything on the south bank as a Free Fire Zone.

 

[Mike Serpa]

@Story it looks like a rope ladder for sure. (A guy wire would be a single length not double.) Good job finding the new photo. Is this the same lookout as in post #1? If so, it seems two trees to the left of the wooden ladder were cut down? Another thing for sure is the way to the top in both photos is dicey.

 

[Story]

Didn't you know that 18 year olds during wartime are invincible? What you consider 'dicey' gives them an adrenaline rush.

 

[samuel orris]

2. Look to the left of the red line I've drawn - see what looks like a rope ladder rigged at 60 degrees?

Whoa! Good eyeballs there, Story. The photo from that perspective certainly enhances things.

 

[USS ALASKA]

"...up in the trees if it would prevent getting shelled by one's own Navy,

That was my thought, letting the USN know where they were.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Didn't you know that 18 year olds during wartime are invincible?

"...but the older I get the less immortal I become..."

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Story]

"...but the older I get the less immortal I become..."

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

... and the more things I realize I don't know.

 

[UCVRelics]

Here is a clearer photo that shows the ladder you were eluding to.