10 & 11 – Crenshaw’s Battery
How to Find Witness Trees 10 and 11
Witness Tree 10 is one of the most photogenic trees on the entire battlefield. It stands immediately in behind gun #4 of the Crenshaw Battery: indeed, the cannon seems to be firing right at the tree!
Witness Tree 11 is the next tree south of #10, another white oak standing a little closer to the road.
<–go to Witness Tree 09 go to Witness Tree 12 –>
Then-and-Now Comparison
The same 1931 photograph from William Storrick’s book of the same year – Gettysburg: The Place, the Battle, the Outcome – provides the evidence of the age and witness tree status of Trees 10 and 11.
Note how Witness Tree 10 has been leaning towards West Confederate Avenue for at least a century!
More importantly, the degree to which this tree is leaning is much more severe than it was 100 years ago. This means the tree is not completely static: it will continue to gradually lean over more and more, until one day it will fall – an inevitable tragedy.
Go see these trees now before it is too late!
Label “A” denotes the cast iron tablet for Crenshaw’s Battery.
