Section #1 - Three Days At Gettysburg
Chapter 27: Day Two: 4:00–5:30 PM
They are immediately greeted by a shocking surprise in the form of General Daniel Sickle’s III Corps troops lined up directly across the Pike in their front.
Sickles makes this move down from Cemetery Ridge without consulting Meade – believing that his original position would be vulnerable to a nearby elevation in the ground.
Both Lafayette McLaws and John Bell Hood tell Longstreet that the attack up Emmetsburg Pike is no longer feasible, since Sickles will crush their right flank.
But Old Pete stubbornly refuses to listen. Lee has ignored his prior advice and handed him his orders – and he intends to follow them to the letter.
In accord with the en echelon plan, Hood’s Division, led by youthful Evander Law, is to initiate the advance followed by McLaws and Tige Anderson. But Law simply refuses to head up the Pike, and instead turns due east into the Rose Woods and an area known for its towering rock formations as the Devil’s Den.
(Hal Jespersen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hood joins Law before being carried off the field when struck in the left arm by a shell fragment. But two other brigades, headed by Henry Benning and Anderson, follow on.
Now on his own, Law orders Col. William Oates and his 15th Alabama to move from their far right position on Big Round Top and assail the apparently vacant plateau on Little Round Top. They make good progress until nearing the peak when met by a sudden barrage of gunfire.
It comes initially from the V Corps’ 3rd Brigade under Col. Strong Vincent. They have been sent at the last second by chief engineer, General Gouvernor Kemble Warren, who spots the potentially fatal gap in the Union defenses. Warren also sends General Steven Weed’s brigade and two cannons under Charles Hazlett. They are still undermanned but dug in by the time Oates finds them.
A fierce clash for Little Round Top follows. During the fight, Vincent, Weed and Hazlett are all killed and the moment of peril falls upon ex-Bowdoin College professor, Col. Joshua Chamberlain. As the 15th Alabama nears, Chamberlain leads his 385 men in a wild bayonet charged down the mountain that sends the rebels running. Little Round Top has been saved for the Union.
