A Little Caching & A Trip Through the Gettysburg Battlefield 5/9/2009

Mom and I left the RV this morning armed with our map of the auto tour of Gettysburg Battlefield and with a few caches on the Battlefield. What I am going to do is put the write up of the Battlefield, places we visited and caches on here and then put the pictures in a different blog. We started our tour, got out and took pictures of the interesting monuments and sites as it would take you a week to make every stop and read every bit of information. The first 2 caches we came to were at Devil's Den. Devil's Den is the nickname for a terrain feature south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that was the site of fierce fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
Devil's Den is a rocky expanse of shrubs and scrub trees, the southernmost part of Houck's Ridge, directly west of Little Round Top across the Plum Run Valley (also known to the soldiers as the "Valley of Death"). The central feature of Devil's Den is an outcropping of massive boulders. This igneous rock, similar in appearance to granite, is an outcrop of diabase sill, known to geologists as "Gettysburg Sill", that is about a mile wide, 1,800 feet thick, and runs for almost 40 miles, directly through the Gettysburg Battlefield. It was formed over 180 million years ago under and within the beds of sandstone and shale that covered the area and over time was forced upward between existing strata. Where the sheet has been exposed to the seasonal freezing of water in the crevices and cracks, it has broken into smaller pieces that have been weathered over the years into separate boulders.
The origin of the name "Devil's Den" is uncertain. All documented references to it are post-battle, although historian John B. Bachelder claimed in his 1873 travel book, Gettysburg: What to See and How to See It, that "it was a name given to the locality before the battle." Stories by local resident Emanuel Bushman, first documented in 1884, claim that a "monster snake" resided there. An account by Salome Myers Stewart in 1913 referred to a snake named "The Devil", which was never caught and thus became legendary. Some accounts by soldiers after the battle began using the name "Devil's Cave" or "Devil's Den" because of the appearance of the area. The boulders, tumbled together loosely, form numerous natural caves—the "den" of the name. On the upper horizontal surface of one of the uppermost boulders is a depression used as a cistern. When viewed from higher ground, the depression resembles a gigantic horned bat in flight—the "devil" of the name. The natural caves and galleries among the boulders provided cover for sharpshooters from both sides throughout the battle.
This landmark gained importance in the second day of the fighting near Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, with a Confederate assault by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps through this terrain. Conducted by the division of Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood, and including both the Texas Brigade and 3rd Arkansas, the charge was directed towards the left flank of the Union Army of the Potomac and hit Devil's Den as well as the high ground at Little Round Top. Devil's Den was defended by the Union III Corps division of Maj. Gen. David B. Birney, later reinforced by the V Corps.
Today, public attention is generally focused only on the sharpshooter activity that characterized Devil's Den later in the battle. In fact, Devil's Den has become something of a legend among snipers because of a specific engagement that took place during the second day of the battle. A Confederate sharpshooter had taken up position, harassing the Union artillery battery, preventing them from firing. Among the interesting incidents that occurred on Little Round Top was the summary way in which a sharpshooter was disposed of in rear of Devil's Den. He had concealed himself behind a stone wall between two boulders and for a long time we were annoyed by shots from that direction, one of which actually combed my hair over my left ear and passed through the shoulder of a man a little taller than myself who was standing behind me for a cover. At last we were able to locate the spot, by the use of a field glass, from whence the shots came by little puffs of smoke that preceded the whizzing of the bullets that passed by our heads. We then loaded one of our guns with a percussion shell, taking careful and accurate aim. When the shot was fired the shell struck and exploded on the face of one of the boulders. We supposed the shot had frightened him away, as we were no longer troubled with shots from that location. When the battle was ended we rode over to the Devil's Den and found behind the wall a dead Confederate soldier lying upon his back and, so far as we could see, did not have a mark upon his body, and from that fact became convinced that he was killed by the concussion of the shell when it exploded on the face of the boulder.
First cache was a virtual cache that had to do with a haunting in this area. The story goes that many years ago, a young girl lived in Gettysburg on her family farm. She liked to help tend the fields with her father and was doing just that one day when the wagon they were riding hit a rock and threw the girl off. The father immediately jumped off to save his daughter only to find her lifeless, decapitated body. Apparently the wagon wheel decaptiated her before the father had a chance to save her. Legend has it that many people have since seen a young, headless girl wandering the battlefield in search of her head. According to the story, the girl, while searching for her head, came upon a certain geological formation, and burned her name into it with her fingertip. It is said if you trace the carving with your own finger, you will have misfortune and bad luck. Needless to say we didn't trace her name with our fingers and by the way the name in the rock is P. Noel. The second was a Earthcache having to do with the rock formations and how they possibly were made. Then it was back in the car and off on our tour again.

Next spot we had a cache was on Little Round Top and it also was an Earthcache having to do with the battle for this hill and rock formations. Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left flank on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Considered by many historians to be the key point in the Union Army's defensive line that day, Little Round Top was defended successfully by the brigade of Col. Strong Vincent. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, fought the most famous engagement there, culminating in a dramatic downhill bayonet charge that is one of the most well-known actions at Gettysburg and in the American Civil War.
Little Round Top is approximately two miles (3 km) south of Gettysburg, with a rugged, steep slope rising 150 feet above nearby Plum Run to the west (the peak is 650 feet above sea level), strewn with large boulders. The western slope was generally free from vegetation, while the summit and eastern and southern slopes were lightly wooded. Directly to the south was its companion hill, [Big] Round Top, 130 feet higher and densely wooded.
At around 4 p.m. on July 2, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps began an attack ordered by General Robert E. Lee that was intended to drive northeast up the Emmitsburg Road in the direction of Cemetery Hill, rolling up the Union left flank. Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood's division was assigned to attack up the eastern side of the road, Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws's division the western side. Hood's division stepped off first, but instead of guiding on the road, elements began to swing directly to the east in the direction of the Round Tops. Instead of driving the entire division up the spine of Houck's Ridge (the boulder-strewn area known to the soldiers as the Devil's Den), parts of Hood's division detoured over Round Top and approached the southern slope of Little Round Top. There were four probable reasons for the deviation in the division's direction: first, regiments from the Union III Corps were unexpectedly in the Devil's Den area and they would threaten Hood's right flank if they were not dealt with; second, fire from the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters at Slyder's farm drew the attention of lead elements of Brig. Gen. Evander M. Law's brigade, moving in pursuit and drawing his brigade to the right; third, the terrain was rough and units naturally lost their parade-ground alignments; finally, Hood's senior subordinate, General Law, was unaware that he was now in command of the division, so he could not exercise control.
In the meantime, Little Round Top was undefended by Union troops. Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles's III Corps to defend the southern end of Cemetery Ridge, which would have just included Little Round Top. But Sickles, defying Meade's orders, moved his corps a few hundred yards west to the Emmitsburg Road and the Peach Orchard, causing a large salient in the line, which was also too long to defend properly. His left flank was anchored in Devil's Den. When Meade discovered this situation, he dispatched his chief engineer, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, to attempt to deal with the situation south of Sickles's position. Climbing Little Round Top, Warren found only a small Signal Corps station there. He saw the glint of bayonets in the sun to the southwest and realized that a Confederate assault into the Union flank was imminent. He hurriedly sent staff officers, including Washington Roebling, to find help from any available units in the vicinity.
The response to this request for help came from Maj. Gen. George Sykes, commander of the Union V Corps. Sykes quickly dispatched a messenger to order his 1st Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. James Barnes, to Little Round Top. Before the messenger could reach Barnes, he encountered Col. Strong Vincent, commander of the third brigade, who seized the initiative and directed his four regiments to Little Round Top without waiting for permission from Barnes. He and Oliver W. Norton, the brigade bugler, galloped ahead to reconnoiter and guide his four regiments into position. Upon arrival on Little Round Top, Vincent and Norton received fire from Confederate batteries almost immediately. On the western slope he placed the 16th Michigan, and then proceeding counterclockwise were the 44th New York, the 83rd Pennsylvania, and finally, at the end of the line on the southern slope, the 20th Maine. Arriving only ten minutes before the Confederates, Vincent ordered his brigade to take cover and wait, and he ordered Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine, to hold his position, the extreme left of the Army of the Potomac, at all costs. Chamberlain and his 385 men waited for what was to come.
The approaching Confederates were the Alabama Brigade of Hood's Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. Evander Law. (As the battle progressed and Law realized he was in command of the division, Col. James L. Sheffield was eventually notified to assume brigade command.) Dispatching the 4th, 15th, and 47th Alabama, and the 4th and 5th Texas to Little Round Top, Law ordered his men to take the hill. The men were exhausted, having marched more than 20 miles that day to reach this point. The day was hot and their canteens were empty; Law's order to move out reached them before they could refill their water. Approaching the Union line on the crest of the hill, Law's men were thrown back by the first Union volley and withdrew briefly to regroup. The 15th Alabama, commanded by Col. William C. Oates, repositioned further right and attempted to find the Union left flank.
The left flank consisted of the 20th Maine regiment and the 83rd Pennsylvania. Seeing the Confederates shifting around his flank, Chamberlain first stretched his line to the point where his men were in a single-file line, then ordered the southernmost half of his line to swing back during a lull following another Confederate charge. It was there that they "refused the line"—formed an angle to the main line in an attempt to prevent the Confederate flanking maneuver. Despite heavy losses, the 20th Maine held through two subsequent charges by the 15th Alabama and other Confederate regiments for a total of ninety minutes.
On the final charge, knowing that his men were out of ammunition, that his numbers were being depleted, and further knowing that another charge could not be repulsed, Chamberlain ordered a maneuver that was considered unusual for the day: He ordered his left flank, which had been pulled back, to advance with bayonets. As soon as they were in line with the rest of the regiment, the remainder of the regiment charged, akin to a door swinging shut. This simultaneous frontal assault and flanking maneuver halted and captured a good portion of the 15th Alabama.
Recently published research has presented claims by Lieutenant Holman S. Melcher that he initiated the charge, although Chamberlain has been credited by most historians for ordering the advance. Chamberlain's version of the story is that he decided to order the charge before Lt. Melcher requested permission to advance the center of the line toward a boulder ledge where some of the men were wounded and unable to move. Admiring the lieutenant's bravery and compassion, Chamberlain agreed and sent him back to his company, telling him that he was about to order the entire regiment forward. As Melcher returned to his men, the shouts of "Bayonet!" were already working their way down the line.
During their retreat, the Confederates were subjected to a volley of rifle fire from Company B of the 20th Maine, commanded by Captain Walter Morrill, and a few of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters, who had been placed by Chamberlain behind a stone wall 150 yards to the east, hoping to guard against an envelopment. This group, who had been hidden from sight, caused considerable confusion in the Confederate ranks.
Thirty years later, Chamberlain received a Medal of Honor for his conduct in the defense of Little Round Top. The citation read that it was awarded for "daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top."
Battle of Little Round Top: final assault.
Despite this victory, the rest of the Union regiments on the hill were in dire straits. While the Alabamans had pressed their attacks on the Union left, the 4th and 5th Texas were attacking Vincent's 16th Michigan, on the Union right. Rallying the crumbling regiment (the smallest in his brigade, with only 263 men) several times, Vincent was mortally wounded during one Texas charge and was succeeded by Colonel James C. Rice. Vincent died on July 7, but not before receiving a deathbed promotion to brigadier general.
Before the Michiganders could be demoralized, reinforcements summoned by Warren – who had continued on to find more troops to defend the hill—had arrived in the form of the 140th New York and a battery of four guns – Battery D, 5th U.S. Artillery, commanded by Lt. Charles E. Hazlett. (Simply maneuvering these guns by hand up the steep and rocky slope of the hill was an amazing achievement. However, this effort had little effect on the action of July 2. The artillerymen were exposed to constant sniper fire and could not work effectively. More significantly, however, they could not depress their barrels sufficiently to defend against incoming infantry attacks.
The 140th charged into the fray of the battle, driving the Texans back and securing victory for the Union forces on the hill. Col. Patrick "Paddy" O'Rorke, who personally led his regiment in the charge, was killed. Reinforced further by Stephen Weed's brigade of the V Corps, Union forces held the hill throughout the rest of the battle, enduring persistent fire from Confederate sharpshooters stationed around Devil's Den. General Weed was among the victims, and as his old friend Charles Hazlett leaned over to comfort Weed, the artilleryman was also shot dead.
Later that day, Little Round Top was the site of constant skirmishing. It was fortified by Weed's brigade, five regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserves, and an Ohio battery of six guns. Most of the stone breastworks that are currently visible on the hill were constructed by these troops after the fighting stopped. Troops of the II, V, VI, and XII Corps passed through the area and also occupied Round Top.
Little Round Top was the starting point for a Union counterattack at dusk on July 2, conducted by the 3rd Division of the V Corps (the Pennsylvania Reserves) under Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford, launched to the west in the direction of the Wheatfield.
On July 3, Hazlett's battery (now under the command of Lt. Benjamin Rittenhouse) fired into the flank of the Confederate assault known as Pickett's Charge. Near the end of that engagement, General Meade observed from Little Round Top and contemplated his options for a possible counterattack against Lee.
The battle on July 2 was not as bloody as some Civil War battles. Of the 2,996 Union troops engaged, there were 565 casualties (134 killed, 402 wounded, 29 missing); Confederate losses of 4,864 engaged were 1,185 (279, 868, 219).
While agreeing that the fighting on Little Round Top was extremely fierce and soldiers on both sides fought valiantly, historians disagree as to the impact of this particular engagement on the overall outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg.The prevailing view is that the left flank of the Union army was a crucial position. An alternative view is that the hill had little strategic value, that the hill's terrain offered a poor platform for artillery, and that had Longstreet secured the hill, the Union army would have been forced back to a better defensive position, making the attack on the hill a distraction from the Confederates' true objective.
The latter theory is supported by General Lee's writings, in which he appears to have considered Little Round Top irrelevant. In Lee's report after the Gettysburg Campaign, he stated in part, "General Longstreet was delayed by a force occupying the high, rocky hills on the enemy's extreme left," suggesting Longstreet was ordered on a course intended to bypass Little Round Top—had the hill been a key objective of the assault, Lee would not have used the phrase "delayed by" in describing the effects of the engagement.
The impact of the battle on the career of Chamberlain was immense. He received life-long fame and launched a political career as Governor of Maine based on his accounts of the battle.


After we finished this cache and looked around Little Round Top we continued our tour through the Battlefield, as we were done with caches on the Battlefield itself, again stopping and looking at everything we felt was interesting and worth seeing and of course taking a ton of pictures. We did do 2 more caches one at a radio station (NRV) and the other in another very small cemetery named McClelland Cemetery. Again this is a very lovely small cemetery with many Revolutionary War soldiers buried here but again lack of care has turned it into a tangle of downed tree limbs, weeds, tall grass and otherwise a mess. We found our cache, looked around, took some pictures and were off back to the RV.
Well until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad