Place · United States
The history of Township of Cumberland
Assembled from 2 dug tiles · 28 sourced records · 1748–2022 · last reviewed 16 October 2026
Cumberland Township, Pennsylvania, holds two pieces of the Gettysburg battlefield: the national cemetery built on Cemetery Hill for Union dead of July 1863, and Devil's Den, the boulder field where Confederate and Union soldiers fought at close range on July 2, 1863.
These are the individual spots Strata has dug in Township of Cumberland — not a guide to the town, but a record of what happened on particular ground.
Digs in Township of Cumberland
A Civil War burial ground founded in 1863Looking at this spot on the map, you're seeing the cemetery built for Union dead of the Battle of Gettysburg, now part of Gettysburg National Military Park. Gettysburg National Cemetery
1748–1972 A boulder battlefield at Gettysburg
This point sits at Devil's Den, a boulder-strewn hill on Gettysburg Battlefield where Union and Confederate soldiers fought a brutal close-range battle on July 2, 1863. Devil's Den
1863–2022
Township of Cumberland in layers
before 1863
Mid-19th-century residents believed a serpent as long as 15 feet lived in the crevices between the boulders and called it "the Devil," which is how Devil's Den got its name. Gettysburg Battlefield Tours - Devil's Den History
from 1748
The oldest record tied to this immediate ground names Evergreen Cemetery, adjoining the national cemetery, with roots traced to 1748. FamilySearch
built 1855, damaged July 1863
Built in 1855 and standing at the crest of Cemetery Hill, the gatehouse was used to shelter wounded men and took damage during the fighting that raged in front of it. National Park Service
July 1, 1863
Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York was mortally wounded on July 1, 1863, and found dead clutching an ambrotype of his three children, with nothing else to identify him. Find a Grave / Civil War Monitor / NPS
October 1863
The picture found in Humiston's hand was printed and circulated nationally until a Portville, New York family recognized their own children and identified their father. Military Images Magazine / NPS
July 1863
Union burial parties hastily interred the fallen in shallow graves across farmland that summer, and heavy rain on July 4 later exposed blackened bodies in the heat. National Park Service
August 1863
Acting as Pennsylvania's agent, lawyer David Wills purchased the ground for $2,475.87 in August 1863 to create a permanent national cemetery. Wikipedia: Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg
October 1863 – March 1864
Samuel Weaver personally supervised workers disinterring bodies from battlefield plots, church cemeteries and field hospitals, placing each in a coffin and cataloguing 287 personal effects for relatives. American Battlefield Trust
November 19, 1863
On November 19, 1863, after Edward Everett's two-hour oration, Abraham Lincoln rose and spoke for about two minutes, reframing the war as a test of whether a nation conceived in liberty could endure. Wikipedia: Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg
July 3, 1863
A 20-year-old seamstress, Ginnie Wade was struck by a stray bullet while baking bread for soldiers and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery just past this ground. Wikidata
July 2, 1863
About 5,500 Confederates under John Bell Hood attacked roughly 2,400 Union defenders holding Devil's Den, and after fierce fighting among the rocks the First Texas Regiment broke through and seized the hill. Wikipedia - Devil's Den
July 2, 1863, early afternoon
Early in the attack on Devil's Den, Confederate General John Bell Hood was hit by artillery fragments that crippled his arm for life and forced him from command. American Battlefield Trust - Gettysburg July 2 Maps
July 2, 1863
After Union defenders fell back, Confederate sharpshooters took up positions in the rock crevices and picked off Union officers on Little Round Top, including killing General Stephen H. Weed and Lieutenant Charles E. Hazlett. Wikipedia - Devil's Den
July 2, 1863
The fight for Devil's Den cost the Union 138 dead, 548 wounded and 135 missing, while Confederate losses ran to 329 dead, 1,107 wounded and 378 missing. Wikipedia - Devil's Den
July 1863, after the battle
After the battle, photographer Timothy O'Sullivan photographed a fallen Confederate soldier where he lay, then he and Alexander Gardner dragged the body elsewhere for a more dramatic image later exposed as staged. Gettysburg Civilian Network
July 2, 1863
The 16th Michigan Infantry, which held the right flank of the Union line near Little Round Top, is commemorated by a monument about 400 meters away. NPS Places - 16th Michigan Infantry Regiment Monument
July 2, 1863
Lieutenant Charles E. Hazlett's artillery battery held a position a short walk from Devil's Den, firing in support against the sharpshooters who later killed him. NPS Places - Hazlett's Battery Monument
July 2, 1863
Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain's 20th Maine Infantry fought a desperate defense on Little Round Top, a short walk from where you stand, holding the extreme left of the Union line. NPS Places - 20th Maine Infantry Regiment Monument
1863
Ginnie Wade, the only Gettysburg civilian killed during the battle, is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, about 3.4 kilometers from here. Wikidata - Ginnie Wade
dedicated July 1, 1869
Dedicated in 1869 with General George Gordon Meade as speaker, Randolph Rogers's 60-foot granite monument stands at the hub of the concentric state burial sections. Wikipedia
1870–1873
Between 1870 and 1873, southern veterans' societies relocated about 3,200 Confederate dead from scattered battlefield graves, most of them to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. National Park Service
November 8, 1884
Henry Gooden, who served with the 127th U.S. Colored Troops and died in 1876, was reburied in the Regulars section in 1884 — the only African American Civil War soldier confirmed buried here. National Park Service
1884
The 124th New York monument, with its Ellis statue, was dedicated near Devil's Den in 1884, part of the postwar wave of memorials across the battlefield. Wikipedia - Devil's Den
1894–1916
From 1894 to 1916 the Gettysburg Electric Railway ran a curve past the south base of Devil's Den, with Tipton Station serving tourists coming to see the battlefield. Wikipedia - Devil's Den
Questions about Township of Cumberland
What is Cumberland Township known for historically?
It is known for ground fought over during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, including the national cemetery on Cemetery Hill and the boulder-strewn hill called Devil's Den, where Union and Confederate troops clashed on July 2, 1863.
What happened at Cumberland Township in 1863?
After the July battle left nearly 7,000 dead across the fields, heavy rain exposed shallow graves, prompting David Wills to buy 17 acres on Cemetery Hill to bury the Union dead properly. Among those reburied was Sergeant Amos Humiston, identified that October by a photograph of his three children found on his body. On July 2, at Devil's Den, about 5,500 Confederates under John Bell Hood attacked roughly 2,400 Union defenders among the boulders, and nearly 1,500 men fell there.
Who is buried at the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Cumberland Township?
Over five months, from October 1863 to March 1864, 3,512 Union soldiers were reburied there, including Sergeant Amos Humiston. A Black soldier's grave among the U. S. Regulars sat unmarked for eight years until 1884, and Confederate dead, originally buried nearby, were dug up again a decade later and sent south.
What happened at Devil's Den during the battle?
On July 2, 1863, Confederate troops stormed the boulder field; the First Texas Regiment broke through and seized the hill, Union guns were captured, and officers were shot by hidden sharpshooters. General Hood was crippled by shell fragments during the attack, and nearly 1,500 men fell fighting for the hill.
What else is connected to this part of Gettysburg battlefield?
Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the cemetery on November 19, 1863, and the Soldiers' National Monument was dedicated there in 1869. Nearby lies Ginnie Wade, the only civilian killed in the battle, and the Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse, built in 1855, sheltered wounded soldiers during the fighting.