01 – 9th Massachusetts Tree

How to Find Witness Tree 01

On South Confederate Avenue, about 100 yards south of its intersection with Sykes, Warren and Wright Avenues, there stand the monuments to the 10th Pennsylvania Reserves and 9th Massachusetts. A stone wall runs immediately behind the 9th Massachusetts monument. Behind the monument to the 9th MA, about 15 feet away, Witness Tree 01 rises through the stone wall. Witness Tree 01 can be easily identified, as it is the only tree that curves and twists its way to the canopy at this location.

What This Tree Witnessed

There are a pair of impressive monuments to the 9th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and 10th Pennsylvania Reserves (39th PA Volunteer Infantry) near this tree; however, these two regiments did not do anything during the battle to really deserve these memorials. Rather, the men of these two units were lucky enough to not be posted near Little Round Top until after the battle for the hill had concluded late on July 2.

The 9th did engage in some skirmishing here with a handful of Hood’s Confederates on July 3, 1863.

Witness Tree 01 Statistics

Tree Species: chestnut oak
Circumference 2025: 83”
Diameter: 26.5”
Estimated age: 240+ years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 8-9”

Then-and-Now Comparison

Gettysburg photographer captured Witness Tree 01 in an 1898 picture he took of the monument to the 9th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on South Confederate Avenue.

It is very difficult to recreate this photograph precisely, thanks to the brush which today covers the space where Tipton placed his camera.

However, the witness chestnut oak tree is clearly visible in both then-and-now images, though it has started to lean a little more to the north as it has grown heavier over time.

Note matching boulder “A” behind the tree in each image.

Other Images

Witness Tree 01 is distinguished by its agonizing sinuous form as it rises out of the old, recreated stone wall behind the 9th Massachusetts monument. The black-and-white photograph below is of the dedication of the monument in 1885, and the reunion of the old veterans of the regiment.