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Colonel William F. Perry, commanding the 44th Alabama Infantry: “Three or four miles south of Gettysburg, Pa. , is a wild, rocky labyrinth, which, from its weird, uncanny features, has long been called by the people of the vicinity the ‘Devil’s Den.’ The fierce conflict which was waged within and around it on the evening of July 2, 1863, has rendered it historic. Large rocks from six to fifteen feet high are thrown together in confusion over a considerable area.” -- From Perry’s article “The Devil’s Den,” in Confederate Veteran, volume 20 (1901), page 161
Major Thomas Rafferty of the 71st New York Infantry: “[O]n the west front of Little Round Top, occurs an extraordinary accumulation of immense rocks and bowlders, thrown together in the most inextricable confusion and piled one on top of the other, forming recesses and covers, which (after the Third Corps had been forced back) were quickly taken advantage of by the rebel sharpshooters, from which to pour a most destructive fire upon our lines. This terrible spot was named the Devil’s Den, and most fitly so; for surely there the devil held high carnival on the 2d of July, 1863. To the south front of Devil’s Den rose a spur of elevated, rocky ground called the Granite Spur.” -- Rafferty’s 1883 address “Gettysburg” in Personal Recollections of the War of the Rebellion: Addresses Delivered before the New York Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States, page 7
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