I read Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. You are right. It is the best Civil War book I ever read. It is a historical novel. It won Pulitzer Prize for best fiction in 1975. Every American should read it. Was it Jubal Early who failed to occupy the Little Round top on this date June 30 in 1863? He let his Confederate troops rest while the 20th Maine occupied that high ground. The rest is history.
You may be right,but I was thinking it was Longstreet that made that terrible error.
The Gettysburg Battlefield is awe inspiring for the bravery that took place on that sacred ground
Was it Early? I think it was Hood and Law who tried to move the 20th from their perch on July 2nd. Chamberlain ordered bayonets and charged from the left flank. If you ask Mrs. Lando, she will tell you my memory is bad, tho.
I agree, it is a fantastic book. I gave it to my elderly father recently. He could not put it down.
See my post at 4. Said ancestor helped capture Early's wagons at Waynesboro on March 2 1865. We still have Early's inscribed personal Bible and camp lamp. I have contacted the board that is renovating Early's boyhood home and will probably one day donate his personal items to them. They have been in the family all these years but this next generation does not seem to have the intrest.
Not quite. Early had a chance to occupy Culp's Hill, which was on the extreme right of the Union line, on June 30th but never did. In several attacks over the next two days he failed to take Culp's Hill, and one of the soldiers who died trying to capture it was a soldier in the 2nd Virginia named Wesley Culp, who's family owned the property.
Jubal Early (with Ewell’s Corp, formerly Stonewall Jackson’s) was coming from the north and failed to take Culp’s Hill. AP Hill came from the west, and failed to push past Seminary Ridge. The Round Tops didn’t come into play until the second day.
I thionk it was the Union Corps commander Sickles who was supposed to be occupying Little Round Top, but disobeyed orders and was too far forward in the peach orchard, where he was flanked and decimated on the second day. A union brigadier noticed that Little round top was not defended, so he grabbed regiments wherever he could find them to take up positions so that Cemetary Ridge would not be flanked. One of those units was the 20th Maine.
I think you may be thinking of Culps hill on the other flank that Confederate General - either Euell or Hill, I forget which, decided against occupying late on the first day.
I live twenty-five miles from Gettysburg in York, PA, which was occupied by elements of Early’s division just before the battle began. The battle is an integral part of local culture.
Two years ago, we had a visitor from Denmark, who wanted to see Philadelphia and Gettysburg, after which we watched the Turner movie. He also read a copy of the Constitution that he got in Philly, and was asking me very pertinent question about what the language means. Americans should be so interested in what it says.