The Deadened Woods

On July 2 and 3, 1863, Culp's Hill was the scene of terrible violence as opposing armies fired hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, splintering trees with shot and shell, scarring the earth with breastworks, and leaving the slopes covered with dead and wounded. Early visitors drawn by the still visible scars of war were horrified by what they found in these woods, including nurse Sophronia Bucklin, who had spent many months nursing wounded at nearby Camp Letterman and visited the hill in the fall of 1863. Among the early visitors was also the photographic team of Mathew Brady, which recorded an image here on July 15, 1863. In 1864 the Gettyburg Battlefield Memorial Association purchased land here, making it some of the first preserved battlefield land in American history. In later years the United States War Department built avenues and constructed the observation tower, and Union and Confederate veterans returned to dedicate monuments and honor their slain comrades. Though the scars have faded, echoes of the past still linger on Culp's Hill.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania · United States