Day's Hill

There is a little known knoll/hill in Gettysburg that involved some important action. I've heard a couple of park rangers refer to this hill as "Day's Hill". This hill is along Crawford Avenue before you get to Devil's Den. When you drive on Ayres Avenue, you actually are on top of it when you reach the loop.

This hill is an unimposing hill, almost meadowlike in appearance. No trees, rocks but not boulders of the magnitude of Devil's Den (although its only a couple hundred yards from the Den), and lots of grass. Was this the way it looked in 1863? Not sure as I haven't seen actual pictures of that area. But I daresay that this is probably what it looked like on July 2, 1863.

Now the reason I really noticed this hill was because my Great Great Grandfather, Peter Stroup was with the 98th Pennsylvania. To make a long story short (and I should probably dedicate a post just to what the 98th did in Gettysburg) the 98th got "removed" from their Corps (the 6th) and ended up on the northern end of Little Round Top. While the fighting was going on in the Wheatfield, General Samuel W. Crawford grabbed some US Regulars (under the command of Hannibal Day) and the "disconnected" 98th PA and took them directly towards the Wheatfield. They went up Day's Hill and stopped at the stone wall. Burbank's US Reg were in front of them and made it to the edge of the Wheatfield. But with all these men, they were able to push the Confederates out of the Wheatfield. Now the Union men never made it into the Wheatfield, so it became no-man's land. That was the end of the fighting in the Wheatfield because darkness settled in on them and there was nothing else they could do.

This little unimpossing hillock/knoll or whatever you want to call it ended the fighting for that evening and didn't give the Confederates a victory in the Wheatfield. But the Yankees didn't win either....so it was a draw. What would have happened if the Confederates had gained the Wheatfield? I don't know and I won't try to guess. I have enough trouble understanding what really did happen....so understanding what COULD have happened, just isn't something I try to bother myself with.

I drove by there this morning and saw Gen. Crawford looking towards that little hill with his hands on that flag staff and thought, "If Gen. Crawford thought it was important, then I think its important."