 Gettysburg National Military Park
Virtual Tour - Day Two
Little Round Top
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Little Round Top
Gettysburg NMP |
This rocky hill at the southern end of Cemetery Ridge is a key feature of the battlefield and one of the most heavily visited sites in the park. Unlike the thickly wooded Big Round Top, this smaller hill had been partially cleared of trees a year or more prior to the battle. Strewn with loose rocks and large boulders, it offered a natural position from which to defend this important end of the Union line. Little Round Top had been manned by Union troops just before dusk on the evening of July 1, 1863. Yet, with the exception of a few soldiers from the Union army's Signal Corps, it remained largely unoccupied until late on the afternoon of July 2. From their signal station on the northern summit of Little Round Top, the flag wavers held a commanding view of the battlefield to the north and west. It was the occupants of this signal station who concerned General Longstreet as he marched his troops into position to attack the Union left that afternoon.
Gen. Warren
Generals in Blue |
Swift action by Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren saved this key position. The chief engineer on General Meade's staff, Warren had been sent by Meade to survey the left flank of the army that afternoon after numerous messages from General Sickles regarding his Third Corps' position, had arrived at army headquarters. Climbing to the summit of Little Round Top, Warren was aghast at what he saw- General Sickles had moved his entire corps out to the Devil's Den-Peach Orchard line, leaving this key hill unprotected. It was not only a good observation post, but a key anchor for the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Observing the southern batteries as they fired from Seminary and Warfield Ridge, General Warren spotted Hood's Confederates at the edge of the woods behind the batteries. Within moments they emerged from the cover of Warfield Ridge, their direction of march directly toward the Round Tops. Realizing they could easily flank the Union positions at Devil's Den and capture Little Round Top, Warren encouraged the signal men to remain at their post and keep waving flags while an aide galloped off to find any Union troops he could locate to get them to the hill.
Little Round Top, July 14, 1863
(National Archives) |
Col. Vincent
USAMHI |
Colonel Strong Vincent, commanding a brigade in the Fifth Corps, was marching his soldiers toward the Peach Orchard when he was approached by the staff officer from General Warren. As the officer explained his orders, Vincent immediately realized the desperate situation at the hill. Despite his orders to go to the aid of Sickles, Vincent turned his infantrymen southward and led them to Little Round Top where he posted his four regiments on the rock-strewn south side of the hill. Within minutes, two Texas regiments from Robertson's brigade emerged from the tree-covered slope of Big Round Top and rushed Vincent's men. They were quickly followed by the 4th Alabama from General Law's brigade, now commanded by Colonel William C. Oates whose dirty, gray-clad soldiers of the 15th Alabama Infantry had marched over the summit of Big Round Top to get into a position to attack the smaller hill. Vincent's men immediately responded, throwing back the first southern attack. Oates' regiment arrived in place and with the 47th Alabama regiment by his side, he renewed the assault on Vincent's line. The reinforced southern line poured a deadly fire into the Union ranks on the hillside, which defiantly responded.
Oates' 15th Alabama Infantry was locked into a contest with Vincent's left regiment, the 20th Maine Infantry commanded by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. Repeated southern charges made no headway against the stubborn soldiers from Maine who loosed volley after volley into the swarm of Confederates. "My men obeyed and advanced about half way to the enemy's position," Colonel Oates reported, "but the fire was so destructive that my line wavered like a man trying to walk against a strong wind, and then, slowly, doggedly, (bend) back a little. To stand there and die was sheer folly; either to retreat or advance became a necessity. My Lt. Col. I. B. Feagin, lost his leg; the heroic Capt. Ellison had fallen, while Capt. Brainard, one of the bravest and best officers in the regiment, fell exclaiming: 'Oh God! That I could see my mother', and instantly expired. Lieut. John A. Oates, my beloved brother, was pierced through with eight bullets and fell mortally wounded."
Position of the 20th Maine Infantry on the southern slope of Little Round Top
Gettysburg NMP |
Col. Chamberlain
Maine State Archives |
Great gaps also appeared in the ranks of the 20th Maine. Chamberlain's men were holding their own, though the position was becoming more precarious as the frightful minutes dragged by. Then an officer spied Confederates moving toward the regiment's left flank. "I immediately stretched my regiment to the left by taking intervals," Chamberlain wrote. "My officers and men understood my wishes so well that this movement was executed under fire, the right wing keeping up the fire, without giving the enemy any occasion to seize or even suspect their advantage. They renewed the assault on our whole front and for an hour the fighting was severe. Squads of the enemy broke through our line and the fight was literally hand to hand. The edge of the fight rolled backward and forward like a wave." Shouts for ammunition filled the air as cartridge boxes emptied. Some men had a few cartridges left while others had none, even after rifling the boxes of the dead and wounded. Knowing that the next charge would break his thin line, Chamberlain decided to take the initiative away from the 15th Alabama: "At that crisis I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man and rose to a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away."
With bayonets fixed, the 20th Maine charges down Little Round Top into the 15th Alabama.
War Between the Union & Confederacy |
The hillside echoed with the distinctive metallic click of hundreds of bayonets on rifle barrels. With a cheer, the 20th Maine rushed down the body-strewn slope. The exhausted Alabamians were caught off guard by this audacious move and they scattered. Those who ran eastward were caught in a hail of bullets from the 20th's detached Company B, lying behind a stone wall only 100 yards away. Confusion reigned as the 15th Alabama melted into the trees. "We ran like a herd of wild cattle," Oates lamented. "On the top of the mountain I made an attempt to halt and reform the regiment, but the men were helping the wounded and disabled comrades and scattered in the woods among the rocks. The dead literally covered the ground, blood stood in puddles on the rocks. The ground was soaked with the blood of as brave men as ever fell on the red field of battle." Assisted by soldiers from the adjacent 83rd Pennsylvania, Chamberlain's men rounded up 400 prisoners, including a number of officers, from the 15th, 47th, and 4th Alabama regiments.
At the opposite end of Vincent's Line, the Confederate pressure was too great. The 4th and 5th Texas Infantry regiments, joined by the 48th Alabama Infantry, were about to overwhelm the 16th Michigan Infantry. Hearing the commotion, Colonel Vincent rushed to rally his men and while doing so was struck by a Confederate bullet and mortally wounded. The injured colonel was carried away just as reinforcements arrived. The 140th New York Infantry, led by Colonel Patrick O'Rorke, appeared on the summit of the hill. Seeing the melee below him O'Rorke turned to his men and led them in a charge straight into the Texans. "Here they are, boys!" O'Rorke shouted, "Commence firing!" These were his last words. Seconds later a bullet struck him in the neck and O'Rorke fell without a sound among the boulders. A flurry of rifle shots and flash of bayonets sent the Confederates reeling down the hill.
140th NY Monument.
Gettysburg NMP |
The swift attack of the the New Yorkers stalled the last southern drive on Little Round Top and the Confederates withdrew to the woods at the base of Big Round Top. O'Rorke's lifeless body was pried from the boulders and carried to a Union field hospital. Wounded Confederates scattered around the hillside pitifully cried for water and several were rescued before Southern skirmishers and sharpshooters opened fire on the Federals, which put a stop to their efforts. The troops quickly threw up stone walls and took cover behind boulders as Confederate marksmen plied their trade from positions in Devil's Den and the "Slaughter Pen". One of their victims was Brig. General Stephen Weed, whose brigade was arrayed around the summit of the hill adjacent to Vincent's troops.
The stone walls and barricades built by members of Vincent's and Weed's brigades still line Little Round Top today, behind which stand the monuments to the defenders of the hill. The 140th New York Infantry is also represented with a monument bearing the likeness of the young Irish colonel who led the regiment that day. It stands near the location where he was killed.
While the battle raged on the slopes of Little Round Top, Confederate troops swarmed through the boulder-strewn pastures around Devil's Den, the left flank of General Sickles' battle line. The Den is your next stop.
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National Park Service
Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike, Suite 100
Gettysburg, PA 17325
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