03 – July 3 Stone Wall Tree
How to Find Witness Tree 03
A stone wall connects South Confederate Avenue and Warren Avenue at the southern base of Little Round Top. At the center of the wall, just to the southwest of a pair of flank markers, stands white oak Witness Tree 03, rising through the stone wall.
What This Tree Witnessed
We are now less than 100 yards from where the nearest fighting on Little Round Top took place. Where Sykes Avenue rises from the intersection with Warren Avenue, there once extended from the summit a spur, a sort of protracted ledge, which was excavated out of existence to some degree when Sykes Avenue was constructed in 1897. But it was on this spur that the 20th Maine and 83rd Pennsylvania regiments were deployed to resist potential Confederate attacks on July 2, 1863.
Surely enough, in the late afternoon, the attack came. Soldiers of the 4th Alabama and 5th Texas Infantry would have passed directly by this tree in the final run-up to meet the foe. Many of the rebels would have likely taken shelter behind the massive boulders sitting today along Warren Avenue, just 100 feet north of the tree.
Thanks to the protection offered by the many boulders on the western and southern slopes of Little Round Top, the 4th Alabama suffered only about 25% casualties on this day, but the fierce 5th Texans lost more than half their men.
Witness Tree 03 Statistics
Tree Species: white oak
Circumference 2025: 90”
Diameter: 29”
Estimated age: 240+ years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 8-11”
Then-and-Now Comparison
In the far-right edge of a 1935 NPS photograph (see Figure P-1), two still-extant white oaks can be seen. The one farthest to the right is a witness tree.
The tree immediately to the left of the witness tree, labeled “A” (the second tree in from the right), may be a witness tree, but our calculations show that it more likely first sprouted around 1863, or within a few years afterwards, preventing us from being able enter the tree onto the list of witnesses to the battle.
Label “B” marks an interesting salient in the stone wall that can be matched up in the two images. Label “C” identifies the monument to the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, located on the opposing side of Warren Avenue.
Historical photograph courtesy NPS, GNMP, Museum Collection, Gett #41113; text added by author.
Other Images
