MANTLED IN FIRE AND SMOKE - July ‘99 America’s Civil War Feature

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MANTLED IN FIRE AND SMOKE

By David F. Cross

The Battle of Gettysburg, and perhaps the fate of the Union, was decided in one hour of desperate fighting on the rocky ledges of Little Round Top.

In June 1863, Confederate military fortunes in the East were at their zenith. The Union Army of the Potomac had just been defeated at the Battle of Chancellorsville; flushed with victory, the Army of Northern Virginia began an invasion of the North. It seemed that one more decisive victory, this time on the soil of a Northern state, might crush the already sagging will of the North and force Abraham Lincoln’s government to the bargaining table, where a negotiated peace could win the war for the Confederacy.

On July 1, in swift, dramatic consequence, General Robert E. Lee’s army met the Army of the Potomac, commanded now by Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, at the Battle of Gettysburg. On the first day of the encounter, Lee’s legions drove the Federal troops back through the town to a defensive position on Cemetery Ridge. Lee’s army seemed invincible. At the end of the day, it looked like another great Confederate victory was in the making. More than just another battle might be won this time, however–possibly the entire war.

It did not turn out that way, of course. Better generalship by Meade, superior tactical decisions by his field officers and, most important, stubborn fighting by Federal troops, defeated the Confederates and drove them back to Virginia. With the retreating Rebel army, the specter of peace faded forever.

But it was close. Ever since, the “what ifs” of Gettysburg have haunted historians of the most momentous battle of the Civil War. One of the greatest imponderables surrounds the fateful struggle for Little Round Top. The Union defensive position on the second day of the battle resembled an inverted “J,” extending from Culp’s Hill on the north, around Cemetery Hill and irregularly south along Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top. Geographically and strategically, the 650-foot-high Little Round Top anchored the left end of the Union Line. In Confederate hands, Lee’s troops would have a springboard to attack the Union rear and force evacuation of Cemetery Ridge.

On the morning of July 2, the second day of the battle, Little Round Top was occupied by a division of the XII Corps commanded by Brig. Gen. John W. Geary. Meade ordered Geary’s unit to rejoin the rest of the XII Corps at Culp’s Hill and troops of Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles’ III Corps to take over Geary’s position. But in the confusion, III Corps troops failed to arrive and Geary pulled his men out too soon, leaving Little Round Top undefended. Lee, with a sense for Federal weakness, chose to attack the southern end of the Union line. If the Confederate troops could crush this portion of the Union defenses and occupy Little Round Top, the whole Union line would become indefensible.

There were many crucial moments in the three-day battle at Gettysburg, but none more so than the defense of Little Round Top by the 20th Maine Regiment. Had the Maine Yankees been driven off Little Round Top, the Battle of Gettysburg might have had a different outcome. At least, Meade thought so, saying later, “But for the timely advance of the Fifth Corps and the prompt sending of a portion to Round Top, where they met the enemy almost on the crest and had a desperate fight to secure the position–I say but for these circumstances the enemy would have secured Round Top planted his artillery there, commanding the whole battlefield, and what the result would have been I leave to you to judge.”

Fortunately for the Federal forces, it took Lee most of the day to assemble his troops and get them to the attack staging areas. His plan was to attack the Union left with 20,000 men while the rest of his army pressured the Union right. Major General John B. Hood’s division, composed of Brig. Gen. E.M. Law’s Alabama Brigade on the right and Brig. Gen. J.B. Robertson’s Texas/Arkansas Brigade on the left, advanced first at about 4:30 p.m. They headed toward the southern end of the Union line defended by Maj. Gen. George Sykes’ V Corps. As Law’s brigade advanced, it wheeled obliquely to the left, hitting the western slope of Little Round Top and pouring into the gorge of Plum Run; it threatened to envelop the entire Union left flank. Lieutenant General James Longstreet later described this advance of Hood’s division as the “best 3 hours of fighting ever done by any troops on any battlefield.”

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