02 – Big Round Top Old Trailhead Tree

View of Witness Tree 02 behind the Third Brigade tablet.

How to Find Witness Tree 02

Just a few yards away from the 9th Massachusetts monument, you can see the granite and bronze tablet dedicated to the 3rd Brigade (3rd Division, 5th Corps). Behind it and to the right, look for a massive boulder that appears to have been cut in half. Witness Tree 02, a hickory, stands about 15 feet to its left, or east of the boulder. It is the tree closest to the tablet in that direction.

What This Tree Witnessed

Late afternoon, July 2, 1863: five Confederate regiments, comprised of men from Texas and Alabama, were about to attack Little Round Top. Having first approached the base of Big Round Top, the 4th Alabama turned north, and passed over this ground in its approach to the position of the 83rd Pennsylvania and 20th Maine on the junior hill. The 47th Alabama would pass shortly thereafter just a few score yards to the east of this position.

After being repulsed in the attempt to take Little Round Top, retreating Alabama troops would have passed over this sector again, but this time they were heading back to the safety of the Army of Northern Virginia’s lines.

The Original Trail to Big Round Top

In its original configuration, South Confederate Avenue arced directly to where the 3rd Brigade tablet still stands today. This was the beginning of the first path that brought visitors to the summit of Big Round Top. A set of stairs at this exact spot led to a concrete path to the east side of the half-boulder, where a second set of steps was built. The ruins of this second set can be seen easily next to the half-boulder. Alternate concrete walking paths and granite steps eventually would take visitors to the summit. This original path was abandoned in 1940 when the modern trail to the summit was constructed.

Witness Tree 02 Statistics

Tree Species: bitternut hickory
Circumference 2025: 71”
Diameter: 22.5”
Estimated age: 250+ years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 8-9”

Then-and-Now Comparison

Witness Tree 02 appears in a vintage photograph taken by William Tipton in 1899, shortly after the paved trail to the summit of Big Round Top was completed.

At the turn of the century, South Confederate Avenue looped directly to the location where the 3rd Brigade tablet stands today; label “A” is slapped onto the avenue in the 1899 image.

Label “B” identifies the first set of steps on the path to the summit. A single granite step of the first set is still visible today. At label “C”, you see the second set of steps and the half-boulder next to which it was built. The remains here are significant. In fact, you have to stumble up these precarious ruins to climb Big Round Top via the original path today.

A second then-and-now of the same photograph, prepared in 2023, appears on the far right.