The Heroes of Little Round Top (Gettysburg) History Traveler Episode 133

on the morning of july 2nd the forces of the army of northern virginia and the army of the potomac were squared off against each other on seminary ridge and cemetery ridge here at gettysburg and in the early morning hours of july 2nd robert lee sent out a reconnaissance to the southern end of the battlefield to see if there was any potential weaknesses that that could be exploited and is reported back to him that there were two hilltops that could maybe be exploited to the advantage of the confederates so lee sent one of his corps commanders a guy by the name of james longstreet who he referred to as his old war horse to bring an entire corps of confederates all the way around to the south end of the battlefield and on the afternoon of july 2nd at around 4 o'clock you can imagine about 15 000 confederate troops emerging out of these woods on the far right was a division commanded by general hood who had a division made up of men from texas and from alabama and their objective was going to be two heights up here one of which was called little round top [Music] do [Music] so so i'm still at the point where long street's core set out from on the afternoon of july 2nd and from where i'm standing right now you can see the peach orchard in the distance right here and then the wheat field is going to be back in that area right there is devil's den and there is a little round top with the slider farm and the bottom part of the frame and this is the distance that the confederates are going to have to cover in order to get to that spot keeping in mind that it is the beginning of july on one of the hottest days of the year [Music] now in telling the story of little round top and and showing you this area i i want to approach it from the perspective of the confederates and the union so so i might jump back and forth a little bit so this this right here is the point from which uh general hoods division would have launched out he's at the far end or the far right flank of the confederate line at the far right of the right are the 47th alabama and the 15th alabama and it's it's these two units that are going to slam into the 20th main at little round top [Music] [Applause] [Music] the section of woods that i'm walking through right now is the approximate approach that the 15th alabama would have had as they were coming up little round top and whenever they got to ride around in this area this is what they would have seen except on the afternoon of july 2nd the only thing that's missing now that they would have seen then is freshly arrived troops from the 20th maine waiting just there on the crest of that spur but but this is the view from the confederate angle and if we cross the road well you can see all of these boulders and obstacles and the fight that we're going to see here at the very end of the union line is going to look like just ocean waves crashing up against the side of this hill okay so now after seeing a few things from the confederate perspective of the battle i want to come up here to the top of little round top and kind of explain a little bit of what was going on with the union side and one thing aside from the walk up the hill being a a lung strainer uh the view up here really is something else well i guess i should say on days whenever it's not foggy and rainy the view is something else uh but really the the view is amazing from up here probably the best view of any civil war battlefield in america uh lookout point in tennessee is kind of nice too but the view here really is something else so you can get a good look at devil's den you can see the areas where uh hoodsmen were attacking up through and uh being up here really gives you an appreciation for what a strong position this is and that's something that the man immortalized in that statue right there would have seen as well so this right here is brigadier general governor k warren who would have been the chief engineer of the army of the potomac and at about 3 30 in the afternoon on july 2nd governor k warren stepped out on these rocks and looked out over the same vista that we are looking at right now and he probably about evacuated his bowels whenever he realized that 15 000 confederates under james longstreet were positioned just a few ridges over on the other side of the emmitsburg road and that little round top had been left completely undefended so a lot of people up until you know joshua chamberlain was made famous by you know the the books and the movies and the documentaries governor k warren was the hero of little round top because he's the one that realized the threat to the the union left flank [Music] [Music] now with gouverneur k warren we actually see some pretty important leadership qualities exhibited for one he he gets up here on high ground so he's able to kind of step back from the action and look at things broadly and and see everything more clearly from from right here you can like you can visualize this whole battle playing out second thing that he does is he sees the need here at little round top so he sends out a runner to get a brigade here immediately that runner bumps into a guy by the name of strong vincent strong vincent says what what are what are your orders okay he doesn't need to go on to the division commander or the court command or anything like that he said what do you need the runner says we need a brigade so strong vincent technically disobeys his orders and he's going to bring four regiments to this very spot which is going to include at the very far end the 20th main so right here all along this line vincent's brigade which would have included the 16th michigan the 44th new york the 83rd pennsylvania and then on the far end the 20th main got set up and it was just in time to see a bunch of confederates from alabama and from texas pouring up these slopes right here and as i mentioned earlier you can imagine like waves crashing up against the shore is this is what it was like so on both ends i can't even imagine what the fighting here must have looked like and it's also here in this spot where strong vincent is going to be mortally wounded [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right so i'm standing here right next to the memorial to the 12th and the 44th new york and if you look on the rock right next to it well there's an inscription that says colonel strong vincent fell here um i'm having trouble reading the rest of it july 2nd 1863. but yeah this is the spot where strong vincent took a bullet that would eventually take his life so once strong vincent arrives here on the battlefield he gets his four regiments arranged here to protect this flank and he has the the 83rd pennsylvania and then at the far end of the line is the 20th main and he instructs the colonel joshua chamberlain to hold this ground at all costs which basically means hold it or or die trying because the the integrity of the union left flank is going to be dependent on them keeping the alabama regiments from advancing on this position so what we are looking at here is the right flank marker where the 20th main approximately would have been set up so as you look down well this is where the two regiments from the state of alabama would have made multiple charges up the side of this hill and would have been repulsed each time and then over here it's kind of behind a tree but over here is the left flank marker okay now chamberlain's line didn't form just a a straight line like what you would normally expect uh you know in in a formation his line actually went down and then if you see this marker right here it takes a 90 degree angle and then comes right out here to deny the the alabamians their flank so you can see the left flank marker uh right out there in the distance well as i mentioned there there are several attempts uh by the the alabama regiments to to take this hill they're denied each time and it gets to the point where the 20th main runs out of ammunition so there's some dispute on exactly how it went down but essentially from this angle right here it's going to act as a hinge and there's going to be a right wheel maneuver where the the men on the left flank of the line are going to charge down the hill with fixed bayonets and they're going to swing around and they're going to try and push the two alabama regiments off of the hill now there's another part to the story that is often overlooked it's not depicted in the books it's definitely not depicted in the movie but may have played a crucial role in this fight now a lot of people think that the story of the 20th main and little round top basically ends with this bayonet charge downhill and the the 20th may and joshua chamberlain driving the alabamians off of little round top now there might be a little bit more to the story so whenever the 20th maine arrived on little round top they got there just in time like 10 minutes before the alabama regiment showed up but there was enough time for joshua chamberlain to send out company b uh from from his regiment as a skirmish line probably about a hundred yards i'm guessing uh east of the 20th main position on little round top okay so right back there about 100 yards that's where the 20th main was positioned uh that's not the end of the line technically because company b came all the way out to this stone wall right here now again this is this is back in the woods aways and i don't think that the people who visit little round top the majority of them i would say don't know about this so there's a monument here that says position of company b 20th main volunteers captain walter g murrell detached as skirmishers attacking the enemies right flank afternoon of june 2nd 1863. so if we go around this wall this completely changed how i view the attack on little round top so you would have had a company of 20th main soldiers positioned right here and as the men from alabama were making their way up and storming up little round top well they were getting fired upon from guys positioned right here and there was one soldier from alabama who said that it was firing from this skirmish line that initiated the retreat from the alabamians and it's at that point that the men from the 20th maine made their bayonet charge down and kind of pushed them off of the hill [Music] [Music] all right so that was just a little bit on the fighting here at little round top i know that little round top has basically become the story of joshua chamberlain and the 20th maine and they deserve all of the credit that they receive but so does everybody else we see leadership on the part of governor k warren for for getting up here seeing things as he saw it and making the decision to call out for a brigade to come to this place strong vincent deserves credit for his leadership and for taking the bull by the horns and getting his brigade here without being told to do so and then of course joshua chamberlain and 20th maine deserve the credit that they uh have have been given as well but coming here to this place and walking these grounds and seeing where these men fought gives you such a much better understanding of the battle learned a lot today but as for now we're heading off to the next place [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 267,359

Keywords: history, civil war, travel, gettysburg, battle of gettysburg, army of the potomac, army of northern virginia, robert e lee, battle of gettysburg documentary, gettysburg movie, history traveler, history underground, american battlefield trust, gettysburg documentary, battlefield tour, battlefield guide, cemetery ridge, james longstreet, little roundtop, little round top, joshua chamberlain, strong vincent

Id: ZFdYLdr1GnA

Length: 18min 40sec (1120 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021