The conflict had begun on July 1, and lasted until Confederate General Robert E. Lee withdrew his troops on July 4. On the first day the Confederate troops held the advantage. They had been able to drive Federal troops through the town of Gettysburg. The Union men ended up in an area near Culp’s and Cemetery Hills, but managed to keep hold of Little Round Top. This area overlooks Devil’s Den, and beyond that, the Triangular Field.
A line was drawn between the troops on the morning of July 2. Union and Confederate lines ran close together. The Union troops now held the advantage for they had managed to draw their troops in a hook-like formation that ran from Culp’s Hill and Spangler’s Spring, to Little Round Top.
In the afternoon of that day General James Longstreet’s Confederate troops began an assault that took them down Seminary Ridge towards Little Round Top. As these men from Texas and Arkansas crossed the Triangular Field, they were open targets. Three more times that day, Confederate troops would attempt this crossing, only to be gunned down by the Union troops up on Little Round Top.
An article written 20 years after the war quoted a soldier that was there that day. “Roaring cannon, crashing rifles, screeching shots, bursting shells, hissing bullets, cheers, shouts, shrieks and groans were the notes of the song of death which greeted the grim reaper, as with mighty sweeps he leveled down the richest field of grain ever garnered on this continent.”
There is no question that souls remain behind in this area. The most common experience visitors have is that their cameras jam, or will not work properly. Some believes that this goes back to an incident where the corpse of a young man was dragged over to Devil’s Den from the Triangular Field so that a photographer could set up an interesting shot. It is said that this soldier resents being exploited after death and causes cameras to jam in booth areas. (For more information, see the previous article in this series “Devil’s Den, Gettysburg”.)
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