Posted on 07/02/2016 9:23:58 PM PDT by Kartographer
Late in the afternoon of July 2, 1863, on a boulder-strewn hillside in southern Pennsylvania, Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain dashed headlong into history, leading his 20th Maine Regiment in perhaps the most famous counterattack of the Civil War.
(Excerpt) Read more at civilwar.org ...
Gettysburg (1993) 20th Maine bayonet charge at Little Round Top
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL-5uyp44WA
I’ve made it a tradition the last few years to watch the Blu-Ray of Gettysburg over the 3 days of July 1-3. I just finished the Little Round Top section.
"The problem with becoming a legend is that deeds may become distorted inadvertently due to commercial profits, hero worship and the sheer passage of time."
The Civil War
An Illustrated History
Geoffrey C. Ward
This a really fine civil war book. It has 426 pages, but what I really like about this particular civil war book is that is has "...more than 500 full color illustrations." I'd recommend spending the money for this one.
Several years ago I visited a descendant of the Colonel of the 55th Massachusetts (Alfred Stedman Hartwell). They lived in Bath, Maine. While there, they took me to see his grave at Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick. We also toured his house which sits across from Bowdoin College campus. The one thing I remember clearly from the tour of his house, was that he suffered terribly the rest of his life from the wounds he received during the war.
That was Joshua Lawrence’s grave and home. I didn’t clarify that in my last posting...sorry.
Forgot to include his last name...Chamberlain. Maybe it’s time for me to go to bed.
My wife’s father’s family from DuBois and Sykesville, northern Pennsylvania, had at least 17 of their men in the Pennsylvania Volunteers company at Gettysburg. We found at least one office and 16 enlisted men on an obelisk monument in a field along the main road.
The families members came from the Lucores and Sykes families who had founded both those small towns.
My late father-in-law had a full career in the military, starting out with the last of the horse cavalry and ending up in the 75th JASCO - Army (Signal Assault Company) at Iwo Jima.
Later he became one of the unsung heroes of the Cold War as a leader of our counterintelligence operations against the Soviets and East Germans in Berlin/East Germany, etc.
Gettysburg was an incredible battle of scared, brave men making a stand that saved the Union. They all deserve our respect and honor, no matter who actually did what at Little Round Top and Cemetery Ridge, or in the fields below.
This was just another example of “American exceptionalism” that actually saved America from a disasterous division within itself.
We are so lucky that we can continue to produce “heroes” who prefer not to be called heroes because they were American soldiers/servicemen and women, who rose to the situation and made a major difference. That was their job, and they did it well.
Happy 4th of July. Hope it isn’t our last one before a PC Marxist/crook president makes it into July Picnic Date.
I’ve walked that ground.
But they should’ve called it the War Between the States, to really capture.
I totally agree with all you say and have nothing but respect, admiration, and awe for most of the men who served on both sides. That said, I stumbled a little when I read the clause “...that saved the Union.” I don’t think anyone would argue that “the union” would have survived had it lost the war...just not with as many states as it had before the war. The Confederacy had no intention of destroying the union and could not have even if it had wanted to. The only chance they had for survival was to fight to a stalemate.
One of the ironies of the WBTS that has been totally lost is the fact that, in winning the war which ultimately granted freedom to slaves, the union had to eliminate the freedom of people in the South to determine for themselves what type of government they wanted.
Reading the article. Very interesting, that whole thing is so complicated I’ve attempted many times to understand it but it’s as I said, so complicated.
Although, I’ve got Google map and following the article with the points of the battle and getting a little knowledge.
Thanks for the post. Good to remember those truly honorable men who did so much with their lives for this country.
I read the book, “20th Maine” many years ago when I was in high school. It never left me.
So have I. What impressed me most was the number of casualties. Both the left and right regimental flanks were marked with stone markers. As the days progressed the distance shrunk considerable.
Several years ago I visited the grave of an 18 year old there who shared my last name.
I have lately noted the irony of harkening back "four score and seven years ago" to an event in which a collection of states declared independence from a larger Union, while you were fighting hard to stop another collection of states from gaining independence from a larger Union.
A great moment in U.S. history where Americans were able to defeat the forces of evil...just like what we did with the Nazis and Japs.
Had the 20th Maine sat on the defensive at that critical moment with most of their ammunition expended, dead & wounded everywhere, and a company missing & out of communication it’s very likely that Longstreet’s attack would have rolled up the Union left. At the very least, Little Roundtop would have been lost. I wonder if the Confederates would have been able to put guns and ammunition on that hill during the night?
One of my GGgrandfathers fought at Culp’s Hill with the 49th Virginia. One of my wife’s GGgrandfathers was in Pickett’s charge with the 55th NC. He was captured and died while a POW at Fort Delaware. He is buried in a mass grave at Finn’s Point, NJ.
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