Devil's Den outdoor view albumen mammoth plate. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: circa 1880. Period ink identification to mount recto reads: "Devil's Den./ Gettysburg, Pa." Matted to 9 1/3 x 12, overall 16 3/4 x 18 1/2 in. 

On 2 July 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Longstreet and his men attacked the divisions of General Sickles' III Corps of the Army of Potomac. Though the Battle of Gettysburg would ultimately end in a loss for the Confederacy, their temporary victory won them a seat at Devil's Den. Angled between two streams, Devil's Den is set within hardly navigable terrain, but it holds the advantage of sight. Federal troops had tactfully used it as a sharpshooting vantage point. With their new positioning, Confederate soldiers were able to fire directly into Union positions nearby with intense accuracy. 

The Confederacy maintained their control for 22 hours, finally withdrawing after a long and bloody standoff. In the end, Devil's Den was the location of approximately 1,800 Confederate deaths and over 800 Union casualties. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards]