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by John Baniszewski (Author)
At the south end of the battlefield is an eerie formation of enormous boulders, balanced in precarious ways, riven with crevices, and surrounded by dark forests and towering hills. This place is named the Devil's Den. If you seek to find a spirit at Gettysburg, here you will find one. But it is one you will not wish to find. The spirit is pure evil, and came into existence a millennium ago, sprouting from a seed nourished by human blood. It lay dormant, until reawakened by the blood spilled so profusely at Gettysburg. That Spirit was hostile to those who passed within its realm, and punished them in mysterious and inexplicable ways. Joseph and Ruth were among its victims. In the Spring of 1863, Robert E. Lee's ever-victorious Army of Northern Virginia, 70,000 soldiers strong, invaded Pennsylvania. Most African-Americans of Gettysburg fled, knowing they would be regarded as "escaped slaves", that they would be kidnapped, and sent south into slavery. Joseph and his sister Ruth, however, could not flee. The little home they lived in was only 400 yards from the Devil's Den. That proximity would prove tragic. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, the lives of Joseph and Ruth would be turned into a many-year nightmare.
