May 07, 2014

This is, I think, the quintessential Devil’s Den: The witness tree at left, still bare from winter, lords over the primordial diabase boulders. Table Rock dominates the scene. Part of Houck’s Ridge, adorned with its own mysterious rocks, can be seen at center right. I’m a big fan of Gettysburg photos without any modern trappings, showing exactly how a scene would have looked in 1863. This photo *almost* reached that point (save for the tourist path at bottom left).

For the sake of comparison, below is a photo of this same group of boulders in 2003. It’s amazing what tree removal can do!

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. GILBERT LEWIS, JR.

Co. A, 47^TH North Carolina Infantry

Born 1840/41 --- Died July 03, 1863 at age 22 

Pvt. Lewis enlisted in May 1862 and followed his regiment to Gettysburg, an act that would have deadly consequences as it did for so many other soldiers wearing both blue and gray. He must have marched with a heavy heart . . . his mother Elizabeth had died just fifteen days after his enlistment. Two more brothers and a sister would die in 1865, apparently not war-related. Sadly, his burial page on Find A Grave says only that he is buried in “a field in Pennsylvania.” Perhaps he was never disinterred at Gettysburg and still lies where he fell.


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