Devil's Den
Devil's Den is a real maze of massive boulders on the south end of Houck's Ridge at Gettysburg National Military Park, where on July 2, 1863, roughly 3,100 Confederates under John Bell Hood overwhelmed some 2,400 Union defenders in one of the battle's most savage infantry fights, leaving over 1,800 casualties among the rocks. Confederate marksmen later sheltered between the stones to fire on Little Round Top, and one famous photograph of a "sharpshooter" was staged when a photographer dragged a dead soldier into the crevices to pose him. Today visitors report phantom drum rolls and gunshots drifting through the boulders at dusk, cameras and phones that drain or fail without warning, and full-bodied apparitions of soldiers at dawn. The most repeated tale is of a ragged, congenial man — often described as a barefoot Texan — who tells lost visitors how to get the best photo, then vanishes, his image never appearing in the frame. Long regarded as the battlefield's most paranormally active ground, its hauntings are attested across many independent accounts, though the National Park Service and battlefield historians treat the stories as folklore tied to the tour trade.
📍 Devil's Den, Sickles Avenue / Crawford Avenue, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, PA 17325, Gettysburg, PA · Get directions