Alright, I'd like to welcome everybody to
Gettysburg National Military Park, my name is Matt. So we're out here on Little Round Top and
we're so glad you came out to join us for the Little Round Top tour. Now look people, this is what Gettysburg is
all about. I'm not saying about me, but about this vista
which you have right out here and the landscape and the weather which we're having. So we're standing here in front of Little
Round Top on the crest of it. North is behind the camera or most of you
to your right, the west is obviously behind me, and east is behind the crowd right over
here. The open area is to the west. When you come out here to Gettysburg National
Military Park whether you're a Civil War buff or not, most people will make a trek here
to Little Round Top, for a number of reasons. Like I alluded to earlier it's absolutely
a fantastic view from up here on this hill overlooking the entire battlefield. I can't tell you how many people I've seen
down here at sunset watching the sunset or pondering the military movements or doing
whatever out here taking pictures. It is just a beautiful place. 151 years ago on July 2nd of 1863, this was
a hot place both literally and figuratively. This place was a hill of death and it was
not known by most soldiers as Little Round Top. It didn't have a name. As far as I know it was referred to in the
reports as “that little mountain” by the Confederates or “that stony hill” by the
Federals. By the end of the battle, by the time the
history books are written, it becomes known as Little Round Top. Now how do we get to Little Round Top -- how
does it become significant? If you think about it Little Round Top goes
through several transformations and it's going through a transformation today. Historically, the first hero of the Battle
of Gettysburg is actually right over here. This gentleman right here, and I don't mean
you [laughter] I meant him. Okay? Sort of funny? A little bit funny? This is Gouverneur K. Warren, and reportedly,
if they've got it correct, if they marked it correctly, this is the rock which he stood
upon and which this visitor right here is on the periphery of breaking this rule by
having his foot on this rock. But he's halfway there. Gouverneur K. Warren is from New York. He is an up and coming star in the Union Army. He is the Chief Engineer of the Army of the
Potomac. What does that mean? He serves on the big general's staff and he
goes out and he looks at terrain. He will position troops. He has a lot of latitude within the Union
Army. Now Warren, why is he standing upon this rock? On July 2nd, he climbs up this hill basically
by himself to find two or three soldiers from the signal corps. Wig-wagging back and forth. Messages. What he doesn't find is anybody else and that's
a big deal to Warren. Because at that time that Warren comes up
here, the Confederates are starting their attack from this distant wood line over there. That is Seminary Ridge and Warfield Ridge
off in this distance right here. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it depends on what
era you're from as far as what Warren's reaction is going to be upon seeing this hill unoccupied. If you come from perhaps the World War II
or Korea generation you would perhaps have the reaction that this is not a good event
to happen. If you were a product of the 60s, possibly
a Baby-Boomer and so forth you would probably say "far out. heavy." If you're part of the newest generation such
as this young man back here you would probably just stare into space [laughter]. Because you will have no reaction. And if you're from the modern, modern generation
you're not even listening to what I'm saying anyway because you're currently texting. With that in mind though ladies and gentleman,
basically Little Round Top is going to become the centerpiece of the battle on July 2nd. It's a place that the Confederates want to
hold and it's a place that the Union forces want to hold and it becomes, in a nutshell,
a race against time to see which one can get here first. When you get in a battle you have to get a
lot of breaks in order to win it. The Union army is good, the Confederate army
is good. They get a big break when Gouverneur K. Warren
climbs up here on top of this rock. Going back to what I said earlier about how
the history of the hill can change-- how many of you have seen the movie Gettysburg? The vast majority of you have seen the movie
Gettysburg. Who's the hero in the movie Gettysburg? Chamberlain! Joshua Chamberlain. We're going to touch on Chamberlain later
and Chamberlain is a big part of this battle, I'm not diminishing that. But to show you how history changes you will
notice that Chamberlain does not have a bronze statue. Warren does. In the 1800s, in the 19th century folks, Gouverneur
K. Warren is the hero of Little Round Top. Not Joshua Chamberlain. And that's how much it meant to the people
of the United States to erect that statue right out here. Now why is the hill unoccupied? Let's back up a little bit. Now the great thing about being on Little
Round Top is you look out across this field and you can see for a long distance. The beautiful thing about preserving this
battlefield ladies and gentleman is you get to come up here in 2014 and make the same
decisions that they did 151 years ago because the terrain is pristine. Now this is the situation up here. Armies are comprised of corps. There are seven Union army corps. Six of those Union army corps are under command
of West Point graduates. The 7th corps which is designated the 3rd
Corps is commanded by Dan Sickles. Uncle Dan. Alright? Uncle Dan is somebody that is controversial
to say the least. He is most well-known for having shot his
wife's lover across the street from the white house at Lafayette Square and then his subsequent
acquittal on the grounds of "temporary insanity." The first time in American jurisprudence history
that that defense has been used. Gets away with it scot-free. What you need to know about Dan Sickles is
that he can make a decision. Whether you agree with the decision is up
to you, but know it for a fact that Dan Sickles will make a decision. Dan Sickles and his 3rd Corps of about 10,000
men are positioned between Little Round Top off to the north to your right. He is positioned between here and that Pennsylvania
Memorial. And he is supposed to extend his line down
to the left. Now when you get into Gettysburg and you get
into controversies out here-- was Sickles ordered to occupy the hill? You can have scholars that argue he was and
you can have scholars that argue he wasn't. Regardless you don't have to be a military
scholar to figure out that this hill is pretty important. But there's a caveat. Sickles is looking at this terrain up here
where you see those distant red barns-- and this is the thing about preserving this park
ladies and gentlemen. Because you can go down there and see the
same thing Sickles did. He perceives that the ground in front of him
is a better place to occupy than the one he is ordered. And in Sickle's defense he tries to get clarification
from headquarters, the big men, George Meade. And he can't get any clarification. And the clock ticks on throughout the morning
of July 2nd and Sickles becomes more antsy and more antsy about the Confederates occupying
that high ground, so around noon Sickles makes a decision for better or worse he decides
that his orders allow him to advance his corps right out front along the Emmitsburg Road. The great thing about the Battle of Gettysburg
is that you come here for the next five days take a Little Round Top tour and you will
get a different tour every time because everyone's got a different view. And this is going to be my opinion; the problem
with me telling you anything about Dan Sickles is that Dan Sickles never admits any guilt
about his move out here. It was always the right move and Sickles by
trade is not a soldier, he is a? [Politician?] A politician and a? Somebody that can obfuscate facts very good. A lawyer! There you go. Obfuscate. I had a hard time getting that one out but
it worked out for me right there. That's one of them four syllable words. So Sickles is going to move his corps out
in front. What I assume he thought, or his perceptions
were, is that on the other side of those red barns in those woods right here behind them. He sends out a reconnaissance and they bump
into Confederates. There are actually Union monuments over by
the modern day park amphitheater. There's two of them. You can go over there and see them today. Those monuments are there because of that
reconnaissance and they bump into the Confederates where the monuments are. You know, they had to fight around the monuments
and they get nicked up and everything but it's all right. At least somebody thought it was funny. Based on that, and this is my theory, based
on that I think that Sickles feels that his time is up so what does he do? He decides that the Confederates are over
there and he marches them out and positions them along the Emmitsburg Road where those
red barns are. The apex will be in an inverted V and the
apex of his line is at the Peach Orchard. The Peach Orchard is located
through that small little gap, you can barely see some bushes. Right over the edge of this tree line is where
the Peach Orchard is. That's where Sickles's line-- I'm the apex,
is going to bend back around. His right flank along the red barns, his left
flank coming this way and resting right down there in a place called Devil's Den. His corps? A little under 10,000. Say about 9 maybe or something. We get into aggregate and into present and
shirkers and you know what did he really have and so forth. Devil's Den! Worst ground I ever saw for fighting. What is the point though? His line ends there. And this is the neat thing once again about
preserving the battlefield. He moves his corps out there. He doesn't have enough men. He doesn't have enough men to cover his front. So what ends up happening? Gaps! He does not connect his right flank with the
rest of the Union army and his left flank fails to occupy the key of this area, which
is ... Little Round Top. This is not at trick quiz, okay? [laughter]. So what are you going to do? George Meade the Union army commander has
to react to Dan Sickles, and whether you agree with Dan Sickles or not this is the ultimate
repercussion from Sickles's move out there. When Sickles throws that corps out in front
of the Union army and George Meade finds out about it he comes riding up. Sickles's headquarters is over here at the
Trostle Farm. I would love to have been a fly on the wall
when George Meade caught up with Dan Sickles right over, that tree line you can barely
see the white side of that barn right over there. That's Sickles's headquarters. Meade was a professional military officer
and I'm sure he expressed his opinion freely with Dan Sickles that day. Sickles offers to withdraw his corps but at
this time the Confederates are beginning to start their attack. So what are the repercussions? The repercussions are that the whole Union
army is going to have to support Sickles-- that is beyond doubt. Sickles’s move becomes a gigantic vacuum
cleaner which sucks in all these Union units into this fight. So in a nutshell, what you have here ladies
and gentleman is waves of fresh Union reinforcements coming in here and waves of fresh Confederates
coming in and hitting the Federals. And what you end up with is a seesaw battle
right out here in front of Little Round Top, that's the Wheatfield in a nutshell and that's
why it changes hands so many times. The Wheatfield is right behind this tree line
directly in front. You can't really see it but it's right behind
there. [Were those trees there?] The trees were there! That's a very good question, sir. I can tell you that -- this is the strengths
and limitations -- I can tell you that those woods in front of me, the Rose woods, were
there, I can tell you that the perimeter of the woods today is about like it was in 1863. What I can't tell you and what the maps limit
me with is the denseness. And the one thing that we've lost in the 151
years, a big thing as far as views, is that we don't have any more animals. Back 151 years ago they had cows in there,
and what do cows do to the underbrush? They chew it. They knock it down. So you could see deeper into those woods than
you can today. I can't tell you this tree was there this
tree wasn't there, just the perimeter. Very good question. I need some cow. How about some goats? Chickens? Pot-bellied pig? No? Wild boar? That'd be nice. Give them a spook. Down there at Devil's Den. Alright? So Sickles has moved out front. Before I've moved to the Confederate side
are there any questions? I'm doing better than I thought. That's the reason Warren is going to ride
up here. Sickles has failed to occupy it. All right, Confederates. Robert E. Lee is sitting back at this headquarters
at the northern end of Seminary Ridge. If you look off in the distance above that
barn with the three white little white cupolas right there, if you look above it you will
see a church steeple. You will see a church steeple along those
woods. That is roughly where Lee's headquarters is. That is the Codori Barn. Now Lee wants to attack the Union army over
here, so how does he get at it? He sends out a reconnaissance at dawn under
the name of Captain Johnson, Samuel Johnson. You want to get into controversial Gettysburg
actions; Captain Johnson is one of those things that will never be solved. Johnson will state that he got to Little Round
Top. And that he saw that the hill was unoccupied
and people have debated that ever since. We don't know exactly where he got but it's
not really important, what's important is what he tells Robert E. Lee and what he tells
Lee is that the Union Army, their left flank, my left right here is in the air, meaning
it is not anchored, it can be turned, cross the T on it. And based on that intelligence which is derived
at dawn probably about four or five o'clock in the morning, Lee bases his attack plan
for July 2nd. Now remember what time I told you. Early dawn. Lee therefore turns to his subordinate, his
corps commander, a guy by the name of James Longstreet. I want you to go over there and attack this
Union line. Longstreet protests, according to Longstreet,
and says you know we were going to fight a defensive battle you shouldn't be doing this. Lee and him have a meeting and Lee decides
to attack anyway. Longstreet argues -- remember corps are comprised
of divisions, divisions of brigades, and brigades are comprised of regiments -- Longstreet argues
that he should be able to await one brigade of Alabamians to come in from Guilford Court
House in Pennsylvania and then he will start his attack, and for better or worse for all
we know Lee starts to acquiesce to this. But what it ends up doing is costing time. The whole theme of this thing is time in case
you ain't got it. Now Lee wants this attack to start as early
as possible, and that's true of any attack, except for maybe modern day, because what
do you have to have in order to fight? Light! You have to have light. The darkness is your enemy, especially if
you're an attacker and trying to move and coordinate right here. Now what ends up happening ladies and gentlemen
is that Longstreet and that brigade of Alabamians does not reach here until around eleven or
twelve o’clock and Longstreet does not start his countermarch, which will be another five
miles, until around noon. It takes time. You're talking about moving on a road that's
about a one lane country road with hundreds of wagons, dozens of artillery pieces, and
thousands of men, and guess what? They haven't reconnoitered the place. If he is a hill, this gentleman right here,
they get to a hill behind Seminary Ridge and they come up to the hill and they realize
that this gentleman is Little Round Top that they can see the hill from? Little Round Top. So Longstreet is in a pickle because he's
on this one lane road and he can't go over the top of the hill. So it looks like the thing to do would be
to just about face everybody turn around and you make the tail the head and you march this
way. Reverse it. What Longstreet ends up doing is keeping the
head the head and he turns that entire column like a snake around on that one lane road. Do you know how long that had to take? To get that thing turned around? Time is ticking, is ticking, is ticking, and
so what I'm telling you is that it's three o’clock in the afternoon by the time that
Longstreet pulls up along this wood line. What time did Lee formulate that plan? Early dawn? Now it's ten hours later. And what has changed dramatically for the
Confederates since that plan was formulated in this area? [Lots of Union troops.] Who's moved out here? Uncle Dan. Alright Uncle Dan. So let's go back to the beginning of the talk. When George Meade hears something is amiss
on the Union left flank over here he rides out to the Trostle Barn and on his way there
he turns to his chief engineer, Gouverneur K. Warren. He says Warren, I hear a little peppering
over there on yonder hill. Why don't you ride over there and see what's
going on? And Warren rides up here to find Sickles line
ending down there in the Devil's Den. And he has a hunch. The Confederates are already firing directly
behind me at that observation tower. There's probably already artillery going off,
but he has a hunch that the rebels are extending way over into the hills off of those wood
lines. So he sends a message down to those Union
guns in the Devil's Den and he turns, he has those guns pivot, and they fire a few shells
into that wood line. What happens when they fire the shells into
the wood line? What do people do in the wood line when the
shells come in? [Start to move around?] They MOVE! They duck! And what does the sunlight do on their barrels? It glitters. And that ladies and gentleman is why Gouverneur
K. Warren is standing like he is today, looking where he is today because this is the rock
supposedly and that is the spot. Beyond doubt, where he first saw that the
Confederate line extended to. Now what's the big deal? That's right, exactly. So if he's the Confederates, congratulations
you got a promotion. So if he's the Confederates and I'm Sickles,
why is this a bad place to be? [The guns are facing in the other direction]
That's right, where's the enemy? [On your flank] That's right, he's somewhat
on the side of me and behind me. Uh Oh! That's what you call in laymen’s term the
pucker factor. And so what does Warren do? He sends a courier down to the valley to get
reinforcements. He first goes to Sickles. Sickles says I ain't got anything, I'm too
thin. Well he doesn't say that, he says I ain't
got nothing. But he is too thin. So Warren, his aide goes on to another commander,
this time to Sykes who happens to be standing there. General George Sykes is the commander of the
5th Corps. And Sykes says okay I've got control of my
entire corps here I'll just detach a brigade. This is how you get lucky. That aide when you have once again corps,
division, brigade, regiment, regiment, division, brigade, corps, how that's supposed to work
is Sykes sends a message to the division commander in this instance Barnes, Barnes picks out
a brigade commander, the brigade commander has to find four colonels, the four colonels
have to find ten captains, and the ten captains have to find the sergeants. Twenty sergeants a piece. And they get the privates motivated. There is a lag time. That courier goes galloping off from General
Sykes with orders to detach a brigade. He comes across as that courier is galloping
along a brigade commander. Corps, division, brigade. We're skipping a step here. He comes across a brigade commander named
Strong Vincent, 26 years old. He stops, he says what are your orders? You can imagine the lather on the courier’s
horse and everything. He goes, what are your orders!? And the guy says I have an order I need to
find General Barnes. Vincent insists that the courier give him
his orders and the orderly says Sykes wishes for a brigade to be sent to that hill and
this is where you get lucky. Vincent takes the initiative to march his
brigade here. To cut through the army red tape and to start
his troops on this march here. So in a nutshell what is everything that I've
told you so far? Strong Vincent, his four regiments are marching
this way, the Confederates are stepping off over here in the distance behind me and it
becomes a race against time to get here to Little Round Top. And I don't think I'm giving away too many
endings when I tell you that the Union army is going to win the race, but I probably will
surprise you by saying they probably only won the race by ten or fifteen minutes. It was that close. And hypothetically if Vincent hadn't taken
the initiative it could have been a different thing, but that's the breaks you get in a
battle, you have to get in a battle. Yes, sir? [How long would it take them to go] How long
would it have -- Well I can't answer how long the delay time would have been. It would depend on how much further that courier
would have to go and then the division commander would have to come back and find Vincent and
you know, it would depend on the distance. I would say that in order to get if everything
was concise, in order to get something moving if everything was readily available from start
to finish you were probably looking at twenty to thirty minutes. Well you know, welcome to Gettysburg. It's better that they started when they did,
how about that? Some of you need to quit giving away the story. Vincent did not receive a promotion that day. No more soup for you! Any other questions? None? [The situation that Longstreet is countermarching
over there I did read something where McLaws and Hood's division would be in the lead and
that's why they took the time for Laws to do the swing around]. There is a point yes. What he's basically saying is corps, division,
brigades. There are two divisions in Longstreet's corps. That's going to be McLaws's and Hood's. And McLaws's was leading the march. What is the benefit of being on the front
end of a march and the problem with being on the tail end of the march? Well, the snake effect yes, but what are you
eating? Dust! That's why you want to be first. I don't know if they swapped it off or if
it was always by seniority, but it is argued that McLaws's was supposed to be first that
day. I would think the circumstances of the moment
would dictate that you just did the most expedient thing, but that's not really the big picture
to me. The thing about Longstreet's countermarch
is he should have known about that darn hill. Here's the hill right over here, still standing
here, like a hill. That uh -- the one thing he should have reconnoitered
it! You're going to be taking 15-18,000 men on
this countermarch and you don't know what way you're going to take them. That's the little thing that should have been
dealt with. He's too big a general not to have known that. Yes? [The artillery that's over by Blackhorse Tavern
- didn't the artillery already go over that hill?] The artillery went around it, but the big
debate was if he's the hill right here and I'm coming up to hill alright, you might not
go over it but instead of going over it why don't you just go around it? Which is what the artillery did? Alexander, the artillery commander never understood
why the infantry didn't follow him, but that's the little things that get you. Stuff happens. There you go, aren't you nice? [Laughter] Fairly good group I would say,
yes? Any others? Okay, one other thing before we get to -- well,
my blue-clad friend. Yeah, I remember you. Stand up here with me. And don't shoot me. This is the closest I've been to a Yankee
in months. So the Confederates are coming up here and
they're starting to get into this area. You're going to be a Confederate okay? For a moment. [Awww] Well you don't have to cry about it. [Everybody has their cross to bear]. Okay. I don't know what to say and that's a rare
thing. Okay let's say that I represent one division. Corps, division, brigade regiment. We're the two divisions from Longstreet’s
corps that's coming up here. He's Hood’s division I'm McLaws’s division. Now with these two divisions sitting right
up here the original plan was for me to come up and attack first. And then Hood to join in behind me. So what they were going to do to orient. I know everybody can see, but the Pennsylvania
Memorial is off here. Or to the camera's right. What we're going to do is walk out and swing
this way and what are we going to do? We're going to hit the Union line at right
angles. When we get up here, ladies and gentleman,
we find Dan Sickles in front of us and McLaws, like you said sir, is very hot about the attack. Longstreet is not physically, personally in
the field, he's at the back, he hadn't made it to the front yet. McLaws is saying Hey! Boss! I got all these Federals in front of me. I can't do what my orders are. I can't perform my orders, I can't execute
them. Longstreet says attack. Longstreet's in a foul mood. He says attack. McLaws says I can't do it. Longstreet sends back word attack now, Lee
wants you to attack. McLaws gets ready to attack. Longstreet makes it to the front and he calls
it off at the last minute. What happens is they reverse. Instead of me going first, now he's going
to go first. So Hood is going to step out and I'm going
to stand right here. So what is Hood doing? Here's the Union Army, here's Sickles, here's
Hood, here's McLaws, here's once again Hood right there. Hood is going to end up being the right hook
and Mclaws is going to be the left jab. Hood is going to come in here and find the
end of the Union line. The great thing about the battlefield in preserving
it is you get to make the same decisions. Go over there to that observation tower and
stand here. You can't see Devil's Den. So what does Longstreet have to do? He knows the Union line is somewhere over
here but he doesn't know exactly where so he sends out Hood to find it. Right hook. And that's what's going to be coming right
at Little Round Top. [Inaudible] The original plan was for the
Confederates to anchor upon Emmitsburg Road and to use that as a guide mark to advance
against the Union flank like a swinging door but they have to alter the plan. So instead of a swinging door they break it
up into two punches. Does that make sense? So it's two moving parts here. [So that actually created confusion along
the Confederates]. Sickles would argue after the war that his
move thwarted Robert E. Lees attack plan. Sickles would argue in lawyer talk that he
shielded Little Round Top by occupying Devil's Den. [Many experienced West Point] That's probably
what got him in the end. What I think happened and once again Sickles
never admits any guilt, sir is that he got out there and he thought he could perform
his original orders. He probably thought he had enough men to connect
with the rest of the Union army. Now like I said, when he moves out there,
these Rebs aren't here. It's a whole lot better position when the
Rebs are behind those three red barns and it's a whole lot worse position when the Rebs
are over here. So it's a moment in time as to when he makes
the decision. But Sickles obfuscates that too because he
says he knew Longstreet was coming so there you go, there's your Gettysburg conundrum. Good luck figuring it all out. Sickles knew that Longstreet was going to
come. Okay, let's take a break, we're going to cut
the film at this point for our YouTube visitors right now and we're going to walk over the
southern end of Little Round Top and we're going to continue the action as we bring up
Johnny Reb and Billy Yank and get down to the fighting on Little Round Top. Let's go! I had a small stop right here that I wanted
to go out and show you. If you want to come back through here or you
want to see it right now. This is Hazlett's battery, which I'm getting
a little bit out of order as far as the fighting but these guns were manhandled up here after
Strong Vincent's men were in position, that's off to my left or directly to your front. The reason that I stopped here is because
before there were monuments and sidewalks up here they actually came out and they started
to mark this area by chiseling in the rocks. And Hazlett is later going to go down and
one of the first markers on this battlefield is actually behind that little monument. Etched behind there. Now the park service didn't do this, but somebody
came back in and painted in the letters and you can see that right there in that area. That's how you start getting places marked
out here on this field. Graffiti is new markings. Old graffiti is now historic. There's several rock carvings on the battlefield,
but you can find stuff like that on the Gettysburg battlefield. There's also a gentleman named Weed who was
hit. This is his picture right here as you pan
over here. Weed is going to get hit by one of the Confederates
on this hill and when he goes down that Confederate knew he had gotten himself a big dog when
he shot himself a big dog what's going to happen then? Yup, another big dog is going to come along. So he sat there, and if this is the same soldier,
which I bet it is, he waited until somebody came to help Weed and that would be Hazlett,
and guess what he did? He dropped Hazlett right on top of him. Does anybody know Weed's last words? “I am as dead as Julius Caesar.” [laughter] What'd you expect? He was a Roman. Nevermind. He had leaves in his hair, bald dude. Kind of funny? No? In the immortal words of former licensed guide
Blake Chambers, Weed gets Whacked. That's for you, Blake. Alright, let's go right over here [Where is
the 16th Michigan?] The 16th Michigan we're going down to it. Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony's about to begin. It'd be cool if you could call that one. Okay. Now we're standing right on the, I guess you
could say southern edge. The south's off to my right here, your left,
as far as the crowd. Right down here below me is the monument to
the 16th Michigan and because we met at the Warren statue, we're going to go about the
deployment of this line in backwards motion, not that it really matters. The 16th Michigan, we think, was the last
regiment to come into line, brigade, regiment. So what am I doing? I'm moving down from the big picture and we're
moving down to small picture. Strong Vincent's brigade of four regiments,
brigade, regiment, is going to be coming up here on this hill and facing south. A lot of people are surprised by that? They would have thought that Vincent would
have been facing this way, towards the west. But the rebels are swinging in from behind
the Union army. So to speak. So these Federals are actually facing this
way and this is the end of the Union line for this moment in time. The right flank I should say. So the Union men are in position. And coming out of that wood line down there
is none other than the 4th and 5th Texas, 4th Alabama right over here. And you know Texans; hard-headed people. And they like to fight. The Texans are some of the best soldiers in
Robert E. Lee's army. And what are they going to do? They're going to take a look up this hill
and they're going to think, my gosh we're in for it now. But they're going to retreat back into that
wood line and they're going to reform their ranks, and they're going to come on with that
Rebel Yell, that eerie Rebel Yell. Now if you're thinking about Napoleonic tactics
out here, where'd your pistol go? If you're thinking about Napoleonic tactics
and what do they do? They put men in two ranks, don't they? First rank, second rank, out here. If you're thinking about Napoleonic tactics,
do you think that that's going to work on this hill? No. So what are the soldiers going to have to
do? They're going to have to become-- every soldier
is going to have to become a general. Every soldier is basically going to be on
his own hook. Are the officers going to be out here trying
to command them? Yeah. Are they going to be sending them up and down
the hill? Yes. But the command and control of their units
is very poor because these soldiers are going to get hunkered down behind these rocks, these
very boulders which we're surrounded by today. That's one of the cool things about Gettysburg,
about Little Round Top is that these rocks were right here in 1863. These Texans start moving from rock to rock
and from bush to bush and they start fighting these Federals. And the fighting grows to a crescendo. There are only roughly about 150-180 Michiganders
down here on the end of this ridge. Very small regiment. And their line as I said ends right there. Now, face this way sir, if he is the Michigan
troops and I am the Confederates, I'm going to hit him and we're going to start fighting
and then what am I going to do? I'm going to start sliding to what? Why do I want to be here? That's right. I outflank him. I crossed the T on him. He can't shoot this way and that's exactly
what the Texans are going to do. As Patton would say they're going to hold
him by the nose. So the Texans start moving up through here
behind me and the Michigan men start to fall back right here to where we're standing along
this crest. The Union line is unraveling. At that moment ladies and gentleman, to back
up a little bit, now Union reinforcements come up, Weed's brigade. Actually one regiment from Weed's brigade,
the 140th New York and it is so close, these Texans are almost on the top of the hill. It is so close that the New Yorkers don't
have time to deploy into battle line. They literally charge as a mob basically down
the hill and hit the Texans and push them back off the crest on this right flank. And save it. They don't get the credit that the 20th Maine
does, but once again the Union line, the Union army has gotten very lucky, right at the last
minute. You couldn't write a play better than that
out here. Any questions? [Why don't they get the credit? Chamberlain] It starts with the why didn't
they get the credit is the question? They do get the credit, to a certain extent. Patty O'Rorke has a restaurant named after
him. O'Rorke's statue over here has basically a
gold nose and why is that? That's for good luck. And good luck to you. And so they think since O'Rorke's luck got
ran out that you could rub his luck off on you. But no, the reason they don't get the credit
is because starting with the author Michael Shaara chose Chamberlain as one of his focus
points. And what is the other thing? If you're going to be historical you need
a character that's going to live. O'Rorke's not going to make it. But he saves this end of the Union line. Any other questions? What do you think? Your mother is so proud of you. I know, it's not cool. Okay, what we're going to do then is I'm going
to come back up we're going to about face and I'm going to take you down my secret,
secret path and we're going to wind our way on down to the 20th Maine and our last stop. Matt. This is Matt. It's another lovely day here at Gettysburg. The question was: was the movie Gettysburg
filmed here? Parts of it. A lot of the scenes were filmed behind that
Longstreet's observation tower. Remember that tower I told you about? It's actually on private land back behind
there. The thing that you couldn't realize and I
can't describe is that Hollywood, when they set a scene like, that if you turn the camera
one way it's Cemetery Ridge and Pickett's Charge. If you turn it the other way it's Little Round
Top and it's all within like the same area how they came out. Now they would come on the battlefield and
get shots for instance yes they filmed some of those shots on Little Round Top. If you've got frame by frame on your DVD if
you look closely some of the monuments you can see they've covered with camo net in the
background, but they really blend in they look like trees or something back there, but
the physical, the opposing lines was done off the park, but for instance when Pickett's
Charge walks out across the field they shoot that scene as the Confederates start across. And then they film the actual fighting at
another location. The scene with Robert E. Lee, Martin Sheen--
I used to in the old visitors center, they played it continuously in the bookstore, so
I couldn't see it physically but I got to the point where I could tell what scene was
on based on the music. And I would get to the point where I could
walk in there at the exact moment that the men come out to cheer Robert E, Lee and they're
like -- Lee's like this you know. Aw, I could just stand there [laughter]. Like that. That scene was not planned. It actually when Martin Sheen came out on
the field the reenactors rushed him and the director said my gosh we've got to get this
scene so they filmed it. Pretty cool. [So they were caught up in the moment kinda?] They were caught up in the moment and they
put it in the script. [You should see some of the faces on them
when they're raising their muskets - they're there]. Yeah. It's cool. We're now standing in the area of the 20th
Maine and we'll get around and focus on the monument in just a second. What did I say at the beginning? We were talking about history and how layers
of history come up and how our views of the battle and of Sickles and Chamberlain and
Warren and all these people change over time. This place is one of the best examples on
the battlefield. Before the movie came out, this area which
is all cleared out through here, it's not really any grass or shrubs. This area before the movie came out looked
just like the rest of these woods. But when the movie came out, we started getting
a lot more traffic, and now we have to catch up with the times and we're undergoing a study
about how to rehab widen the trails take trails away where to put them where not. The wear and tear on the hill. This is an area that we have to catch up with. Now historically speaking, 151 years ago Strong
Vincent would later be killed that day but before he was killed he brought Joshua Chamberlain
over here personally leading the 20th Maine in front of the column and Vincent said to
Chamberlain hold this ground at all hazards. What does that mean? At all costs. What does that not allow you to do? You have no option to retreat. Hold this ground at all options. The 20th Maine. Chamberlain knows that he is do or die right
here. Now Joshua Chamberlain doesn't really need
any introduction. Joshua Chamberlain is a well-read man before
the war. He is a professor of Philosophy and Rhetoric
at Bowdoin College in Maine. My first tour out here on Little Round Top
I had an alumnus from Bowdoin College, and I in my true southern accent said Bowdoin,
because you know, Bowdoin. Bobby out here. Not spelled exactly the same way. Anyway I said Bowdoin, and I thought this
person was going to keel over right on the ground in front of me. Very hazardous, you understand. So it's Bowdoin College. He's a professor. He has no prior military experience. But what can he do? He can read. And obviously he's not a dunce. So he rises up through the ranks because he
is a well-educated man. And you know what? The intangible about Chamberlain, which you
can never put on paper, is that Chamberlain is a natural leader. People like Chamberlain. Chamberlain leads from the front and he's
got the right touch with his men. He is a person that we will never see again
in the scenes of American history. Why? Because you just never see someone come out
of the civilian ranks, professor for that matter, come out of the ranks and rise up
to be a major general. This won't happen. Well I don't foresee it. Chamberlain is ordered to hold this line. He's got about 300 men through here. Coming through these woods and there's already
fighting occurring over here with the Texans and the 16th Michigan and the 44th New York,
et cetera. Coming through these woods is those Alabamians. Remember I told you Longstreet argued to wait
on one last brigade of Alabamians? This is the same men and these Alabamians
comprising the 15th primarily, that we're looking at today under the command of William
C. Oates, have just climbed Big Round Top, come over the summit, and are now descending
into the saddle between Little Round Top and Big Round Top. They have already undergone a march of roughly
twenty miles to get here and then they did another five mile countermarch to get into
position to attack. And to top it all off, they were out of water
so they sent the canteen runners off when they were beginning the attack and the canteen
runners didn't come back by the time they set off their attack so they go into this
attack with no water. In July. Wearing thick cotton, thick wool cotton uniforms. Think you've got it bad? And brogans, their shoes. So anyway, William C. Oates is the exact opposite
of Chamberlain, from a different background. Oates grows up in Pike County, Alabama which
is sparsely populated. His father is a tavern owner. Oates runs away from home after his father
thrashes him, at age 16 he runs away for several months. He comes back I guess him and his father made
amends, he becomes a school teacher. Must have been a well-read guy despite being
in the country. He becomes a school teacher and then at his
father's tavern one night he gets into a fight with the man. And he beats him up so bad with a wooden mallet
that he thinks he's killed him. This is around when he was 18. He leaves town and he goes to Texas. He sets off across Texas and according to
his memoirs he has several adventures mostly doing odd jobs as a painter, carpenter et
cetera. He said he had luck with cards. He says in one Texas town, nobody famous,
he got into an argument with a local gunfighter and the next day him and that gunfighter had
decided to meet in true old-west fashion with the draw on the streets. And that night before the sun came up his
father showed up and told him two important things. One, he hadn't killed that guy in Alabama
and he could come back home. And two, he had best clear out by dawn. And Oates was smart enough to do that because
Oates figured that guy would have killed him; he was no gunfighter. Now Oates comes back home, he starts teaching
again, and then he starts studying law. I think he's admitted to the bar in 1858 or
9, so he is a learned man, so to speak. More importantly, as far as his military career,
he's a captain in the local militia, that'd be like the National Guard. And he knows basic drills. And so when those local boys go off to war,
who do they elect as their official officer? Him. And by seniority and attrition Oates and of
course wanting the job, Oates works himself up through the ranks until on this battlefield
he's leading the entire regiment as a colonel having started out as a captain. Now Oates is coming down through here and
he can hear the firing off through here to his left my left. He can't see anything but he knows there's
something happening. Now he wanted, he desperately wanted to stay
on Big Round Top. His men were tired, tuckered out, obviously
dehydrated et cetera. But word came back to push ahead, push the
attack. Hood wants to push the attack, the division
commander. So Oates rousts his Alabamians and they set
off down this hill. Now he can hear the firing, he can maybe see
the smoke rising up over here, and he knows that the Yankees have to be close, but he's
not exactly sure where they are. When he comes out. When you look down here ladies and gentlemen
into this area I want you to use your imagination to take away these cars, take away the road. What I want you to put back in with your imagination
are the trees and the rocks. And those Alabamians are coming through there,
and about the time they hit the road or maybe on the opposite side of it, there's a blinding
flash of light in this growing darkness in these woods. That blinding flash of light is what? [Chamberlain's men?] Chamberlain's men firing those 300 muskets
which illuminate the forest and the bullets start zipping in here. You could hear the impact on the bodies. Most of them were probably fired too high
though. You could hear the ricocheting off the trees
and the rocks and so forth. Oates is going to back up the 15th Alabama
and as best he can in those dense woods, he is going to start to dress his lines. And once he gets his lines dressed he is going
to come out here and he's going to put Tanner in front and we're going to go right at them. Hitting them straight ahead. All right, so Oates starts to hit this line. The Maine men redouble their firing. The Alabamians start to get behind these boulders. They talk about being behind these rocks down
here and so they reload from behind some of these boulders and they start shooting up
here at Chamberlain's men. I can't tell you how many attacks were made
by Oates that day. Combat is a tunnel vision affair. Because if me and Tanner were standing here
that day, what he perceives as an attack I may not perceive as an attack. It may just be a crescendo and firing and
an ebb to the firing. It's kind of like a classroom if you remember
the noise level to that it rises and falls right up here. So veterans say a lot of different number
of attacks. So what is happening is that there's continuous
pressure being put on Chamberlain's men. Now what did the Texans do over here on the
Union flank? The other Union flank? They moved left. Over here Oates is going to move right because
he can feel it. He can feel that the Union line has got to
be around here somewhere. So he's going to start sliding. Now Chamberlain, let's be Yankees, is standing
up here his men and they're firing like this down at the Alabamians down into this area. As Chamberlain is focused on the threat that's
in his immediate front, an officer comes to him a messenger comes to him and he says that
the Confederates are trying to turn his flank. In other words, if we're the Federals they're
trying to get up here and cross the T on them. Hit them from this way in this area. That's not going to give Chamberlain too much
joy. But what are his orders? Hold the ground at all hazards. So this is where Chamberlain starts to exert
leadership on a grand scale. We have two lines here, me and Tanner. He will tell Tanner in the first line to stay
put, keep firing in this direction. The second line will slide to the left and
turn at right angles, like an L. You stay straight Tanner, what are you doing? He's a good kid. So Chamberlain turns his line like this. Right? With the front being here and the flank being
over here. And that's where we're not going far but we're
going to walk right over to the left flank and continue the fighting. So right over here is the flank marker for
the 20th Maine and it's got an L on it. This means left flank. This is the end of the Union line and a few
feet. But this is the end of the Union line on July
2nd. This is where Chamberlain bends back facing
this way to face the Confederates. And he'd only been here for a matter of time
before Oates and those Alabamians start charging up this way too. It is an unenviable position for the Maine
men because now they're caught in a crossfire because they're getting bullets from each
direction as they're coming out through here, and the Alabamians are going to come up through
here and drive the Maine men back. It's a see-saw battle that flows back and
forth on top of this hill. So where you're standing and sitting today
literally ladies and gentlemen there was wounded and dead soldiers in this area and more and
more as the fighting continues to grow. There were pools of blood on these very rocks
151 years ago. It is a momentum driven battle where the Rebels
will drive the Yankees back and the Yankees will drive the Rebels back, and they'll keep
repeating the process, but it's a stalemate and Oates needs to break it. So he picks maybe twenty or thirty men and
he detaches them to go around the end of the Union line and come in behind. And that ladies and gentlemen will cause some
confusion, but back here where you see the gentlemen in the blue shirt has positioned
himself so strategically right here. That is known as the Oates rock. That is reportedly where the flagbearer of
the 15th Alabama and Oates's brother, they are going to get to that rock right there
and later many years after the battle, Oates is going to want to put up a monument to his
men there because his brother is mortally wounded there and of course a lot of his men
died in this area. Chamberlain will write him back and say that's
all fine and good but you never got there. So you see where the gentleman is there's
no monument. The battle see-saws back and forth. People are becoming fatigued. Soldiers are running out of ammunition. The Maine men are coming up and they are rifling
through the cartridge boxes of the dead and the wounded, trying to get everything they
can. Chamberlain knows that his men are about out
of gas. William C. Oates knows that his men are about
out of gas. It's growing dark. Chamberlain and Oates don't know where they
are but Chamberlain has more friends than Oates does. Oates is the end of the Confederate line. People don't think about that. He's the end of the line. He has no support off to his right and he's
starting to get bullets from his rear. And he doesn't know who that is, how many
they are. So, here we get into once again; Gettysburg
and layers of history. William C. Oates is going to write and say
I decided to withdraw. And Chamberlain is going to write that I ordered
an attack. Can both men be right when they write? So what ends up happening? Chamberlain is going to order a bayonet attack
and this is not even clear. Come up here Tanner and face towards the front
again. Remember the lines are facing at right angles
to each other. In Chamberlain's version of events, and like
the movie portrays, Chamberlain is going to order bayonets. I don't know if they had dramatic music in
the background as they did it or not but Chamberlain is going to order bayonets and he is going
to order his left wing under Major Spears to pivot like a door, to swing like a door
and come flush with the right wing and then charge down the hillside. Chamberlain would say they weren't withdrawing
that he drove them off; Oates would say he's withdrawing. Who knows? So in Chamberlain's version of events they're
going to swing out here and make that attack. Remember one thing about Chamberlain, for
better or worse Chamberlain is a prolific writer. He is a good writer. You want to read some good prose, go to the
Visitors Center and buy one of his books. That man can write. He is vivid. You feel like you were there. But Chamberlain really put the glory back
into war. Nothing wrong with that but he remembered
the heroism and bravery of his men seeing these scenes and both sides fighting valiantly. His second in command Major Spears resents
that after the war. Spears doesn't remember glory and war. Spears remembers pain and suffering and loss. And Spears resents Chamberlain trying to make
something out of it. Take that into context, Spears remembers on
July 2nd that he received no such order from Joshua Chamberlain. Where'd the right flank go? He received no such order from Chamberlain
to swing his left line and dash down the hill. Spears writes that what happened was that
the right flank, Tanner here charged forward, and he saw the American flag go off in that
direction and Spears thought to himself “maybe we ought to do something” so he had the
left wing advance too. Do you see how I'm saying the same thing though
but it's in a slightly different term? There's no dramatic pivot, according to Spears. Basically both halves of this regiment charge
almost simultaneous to each other, but it's not as dramatic as Chamberlain would have
it. The bottom line is the bottom line though. Chamberlain the 20th Maine and those men drive
back the Alabamians. He could have broken. The Maine men could have broken and they were
close to doing that on several times. They did not. The line was held, beyond a doubt. Chamberlain and his men held the line and
it is one of the most dramatic, the most courageous, and one of the must-win, biggest must-win
situations for the Union Army on July 2nd. You definitely don't want in this area a Confederate
flag flying from Little Round Top. Cause you know what those Southerners would
do to this barbecue joint over here? They'd ransack that thing real fast. That'd probably cost them the victory actually. I know what to do, let me get some wood! Yes? Yes. A couple of them. But they're not going to cause the major damage. You're correct, some of these guns did fire
on Pickett's Charge. Let me finish the story though before we get
to July 3rd. You had a question. [Is Spears a professional soldier? A West Pointer?] I don't know. [The reason I'm asking is perhaps the two
accounts differ, you had a learned educated non-professional soldier who glamorizes and
glorifies; the professional soldier would look at it as what it was.] I'm repeating it for the microphone. I know everybody heard you but, basically
he's saying that you may have had a professional soldier under Spears, he's a dreamer and so
forth. Beyond a doubt Chamberlain makes, I don't
say he does it intentionally, but Chamberlain benefits from his war service. He becomes Governor of Maine. In fact, William C. Oates is going to be Governor
of Alabama. We've got a president over here in Gettysburg
who benefited greatly from military service. So I'm not criticizing Chamberlain for that. Chamberlain would come up and I think to a
certain extent he thought Spears over-exaggerated. And here's where we get into who's right and
so forth. Maybe he's taken a little bit more of the
lion's share. But you can't discount Spears's personal animosity. Apparently they didn't particularly get along
or anything like that. It wouldn't be the first two men who never
got along in history. But anyway, you know the truth is probably
in the middle out here. With Chamberlain. The main thing is though that once again Chamberlain
is going to keep his cool. A lot of people would have broken. But Chamberlain is going to hold onto this
for the best. Chamberlain is-- Right. I think, but you're basically pointing out
between professional military and non-professional. You also have the core of who you are. We all take stress very differently. You know some people. You know yourselves better than I do you know
how you react to stress. In certain situations I react pretty good;
I think in certain situations I don't. In this particular situation Chamberlain did. The other thing about Chamberlain that you
could argue though, to push back, because I've been maybe a little too harsh on Chamberlain. To push back a little bit, Chamberlain earns
his stars. The only reason he is a Major General is because
they thought he was going to die. He received a ball at Petersburg that went
through both pelvises and on the way through it cut his urethra, and only because he was
a Major General they did experimental surgery and spliced his urethra back together with
a glass tube. And he would have complications, it never
healed, I think it leaked, you can imagine what that would do, but it caused him a lot
of pain and suffering for the rest of his life and he would actually, some think, die
of complications from that in the early 1900s-- 1912, 1914 something like that. Yeah. But he was not supposed to be at Appomattox. They thought, “he's gone up the spout,”
as the soldiers would say. So definitely one thing, whether you agree
or disagree with Joshua Chamberlain; nobody can call him a coward. He stood there after he was shot. I believe he had the American flag in his
hand, if you want it even more dramatic, and he leaned against either his flag or his sword. I think maybe he stuck his sword in the ground
but he leaned against something and held himself up and urged his men on before he collapsed
on the ground. It's crazy. I don't know if I could do that. I just don't know. [But you just did]. Yeah, I know I go that one, so I just did
it. Well, all right. Don't undersell myself, yes, exactly, thank
you Tanner for the vote of confidence. I'm also skinny too so I could turn sideways
right? All the bullets would miss me. [How big was Chamberlain?] Uhh. [He looks like a bigger man]. That's cause of his mustache! His mustache out here. Which you know you get out into this area
and Chamberlain when he came back here the 20th Maine monument is right down there, but
Chamberlain when he came back here for the monument dedication basically they put the
monument there because that's where they said the two wings tied together. Chamberlain got back here twenty or thirty
years after the war and he said, “I don't remember this. I don't remember the flag being here.” And he said, “this is where it was,” so
that's where the monument is. Of memory and men. Now to close it off, let me say something
to tie it all in. Don't walk out of here getting the impression
that I am dismissing Joshua Chamberlain's actions. I'm just trying to put it in realistic terms
for you, and don't think I'm dismissing what Chamberlain pulled off on the left flank. The one thing that I want you to be aware
of, and I think is overshadowed by the movie, is that Chamberlain's action here is one of
a series of events that occur on July 2nd. It is not the single event that occurs that
day that saves the Union army. It is a number of events. I can point you to a lot of things, the 137th
New York on Culp's Hill, the 1st Minnesota at the Pennsylvania Monument with 80% casualties
for the Minnesota men. There is a lot of heroism on this field that
eventually is going to lead to Union victory. The Confederates and Robert E. Lee are going
to hurl everything they've got at George Meade or everything Lee can get into the battle
that day and they're going to come this close from winning it. Little Round Top captures the imagination
of the American public still today because, just like Pickett's Charge, it's one of these
great “What Ifs?” What could have happened up here? And it is always a privilege and I hope it
is an honor for you also to come out here and walk the same ground and in the same footsteps
of these brave men. Thank y'all very much. [Applause]
