02 – Purcell Artillery
How to Find This Tree and Stump
The Purcell Artillery is the next battery down from the Letcher Artillery on West Confederate Avenue. The tree labeled “A” had been dying, and was cut down and removed on September 10, 2024. Witness Tree 02 stands near the #4 gun.
What this Tree Witnessed
The Purcell Artillery, also known as McGraw’s Battery, arrived here on July 2, 1863, and took part in the same operations as did the Letcher Artillery, including the cannonade preceding Pickett’s Charge on July 3.
<–go to Witness Tree A go to Witness Tree 03 –>
Witness Tree 02
Tree Species: white oak
Circumference 2024: 114”
Diameter: 36.5”
Estimated age: 210-230 years
Estimated diameter in 1863: 10”
Then-and-Now Comparisons
We are actually looking at the same William Tipton photograph from 1902 as was used to identify Witness Tree 01 here on West Confederate Avenue. Note that the four Napoleon guns of the Purcell Artillery are missing in the Tipton photograph; the cannon were placed here in 1902, according to the Gettysburg Commission annual report of August 1902, so they must have arrived soon after Tipton shot his image.
Tree A is today a stump. Witness Tree 02 is nice and healthy, and should be around for many years to come!
In the photo at left, taken in the summer of 2024, Tree A is on the left, Witness Tree 03 is on the right.