Tour the Gettysburg battlefield > North • Central • South • E. Cavalry Field
Benner’s Hill is one of the least visited places on the Gettysburg battlefield. It lies across Hanover Road (Pennsylvania Highway 116) about a quarter mile east of town, or about three quarters of a mile west of the US 15 freeway. It is not on the Auto Tour.
On July 2nd, 1863, several Confederate artillery batteries from Major Joseph W. Latimer’s and Lt. Colonel William Nelson’s Battalions of Ewell’s Second Corps tried to provide artillery support from here to the attack of Johnson’s Division on Cemetery Hill. It was not a good position, as Benner’s Hill is a long, narrow ridge running almost perpendicular to the Union lines, which forced the Confederate pieces to crowd together.
But it was the best position available, and at around 4 p.m. fourteen Confederate guns opened fire on Cemetery Hill. For an hour and a half they dueled twenty-four Union guns on Cemetery Hill, Culp’s Hill and Stevens’ Knoll. The unequal hour and a half contest ended with Major Latimer mortally wounded and the badly battered Confederate batteries withdrawn before the Confederate infantry attack could begin.
Today the hill provides excellent views of Gettysburg and the Cemetery and Culp’s Hill areas, particularly from just past the turnaround loop on the south end of the park road. Parking is available anywhere along the paved park road, which runs south of Hanover Road. The markers and park-owned land continue north of Hanover Road, although the paved road does not.
Click an icon on the map or choose from the list below to see a monument or marker.
Confederate headquarters
Latimer’s Artillery Battalion, Johnson’s Division, 2nd Corps
Nelson’s Artillery Battalion, 2nd Corps Artillery Reserve
Confederate artillery markers
Allegheny (VA) Artillery
Chesapeake (MD) Artillery
First Maryland Battery
The Lee (VA) Battery
Amherst (VA) Battery
Milledge (GA) Artillery
Fuvanna (VA) Artillery