GDG- The Gettysburg Electric Railway/Trolley

[Nancy Householder]

The Gettysburg Electric Railway, also known as the Trolley was incorporated on July 28,1892.
They planned to run it, not just around the town, but around the battlefield.
William Tipton, who was one of the people who helped with granting access for the trolley tracks,
and while they were planning this, eventually purchased 13 acres of land just east of Devils Den
for his own park. He knew the trolley line would be passing thru there, and probably made 

arrangements with the trolley company for his park to be a designated stop.
The proposed trolley route was leaked in a Philadelphia newspaper in March 1892:
    " It will start from the square in Gettysburg, run out the Baltimore Pike, pass 

    Cemetery Hill,encircle the National Cemetery,thence along the Emmittsburg Rd
    to the Peach Orchard,through the Wheatfield to Devils Den,and through the
    Valley of Death to Little Round Top Park. The return will be made via the
    Bloody Angle and Hancock Avenue to Gettysburg."

On April 17 & 18, 1893 a gang of Italians arrived from Baltimore and shanties were
set up for them on the lot belonging to Mr. Tipton in Devils Den, and work began on 

the Round top end of the Electric Railway. During the next few days the sound of
dynamite blasting rocks on Tiptons land was heard in town more and more frequently.
One eyewitness described the work:
    " All along the line, in the vicinity of Devils Den, there is heavy blasting and digging
    and filling; and great havoc is played with the landscape. Huge masses of rock are
    displaced, great bouldlers are moved, the valley is to be filled the width and height
    of a track from the bridge over Plum Run in front of Round Top to the north end
    of the Valley and a whole new appearance will be given to the famous field of
    carnage.
For the next few weeks, veterans  and concerned citizens watched in disbelief as the
trolley company  cut a thirty foot wide path  through some of the most sacred ground
on American soil. Historic trees were felled, streams were forded,  and rocks that still
should the scars of battle were forever blasted from the face of the earth. In some instances'
the trolley roadbed passed within feet of monuments that had been dedicated just a few
years before. Public outcry was immediate and in some cases very bitter.

John  Bachelder was sent to Gettysburg in June to make a preliminary report to the Sec
of War on the work being done by the railway company.
Part of his report:
        The boulders which covered the combatants in the desperate engagement between        

        the Fourth Maine and the 44th New York of the Union Army and the 44th Alabama
        and the right of Bennings Brigade of the Confederate army are already blasted, and
        the fragments broken under the hammer and are covered with earth to form a roadbed.
        And it is this locality which has been turned into a park to which cheap excursions are
        to be run from Baltimore and other cities. This is the most wild and picturesque 

        section of the field. For the distance of over one mile before reaching this locality, the
        road cuts ruthlessly through the scene of some of the most desperate encounters of the battle.

Can you imagine this happening today?
Nancy Householder