Posted on 07/02/2007 4:21:52 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
1863 : The second day of battle at Gettysburg
General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia attacks General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac at both Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, but fails to move the Yankees from their positions.
On the north end of the line, or the Union's right flank, Confederates from General Richard Ewell's corps struggled up Culp's Hill, which was steep and heavily wooded, before being turned back by heavy Union fire. But the most significant action was on the south end of the Union line. General James Longstreet's corps launched an attack against the Yankees, but only after a delay that allowed additional Union troops to arrive and position themselves along Cemetery Ridge. Many people later blamed Longstreet for the Confederates' eventual defeat. Still, the Confederates had a chance to destroy the Union left flank when General Daniel Sickles moved his corps, against Meade's orders, from their position on the ridge to open ground around the Peach Orchard. This move separated Sickles' force from the rest of the Union army, and Longstreet attacked. Although the Confederates were able to take the Peach Orchard, they were repulsed by Yankee opposition at Little Round Top. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on this day, and both armies suffered heavy casualties.
Lee's army regrouped that evening and planned for one last assault against the Union center on July 3. That attack, Pickett's charge, would represent the high tide of Confederate fortunes.
I’m a Southern man born and bred. Many in my family died fighting for the Confederacy. Having said that, Chamberlain was a man of honor and courage. The bayonet charge of the 20th Maine was nothing short of brilliant. What I would give to fight beside a man like him.
On my father’s side, two of my great-great-grandfathers fought in the Union Army through all four years of the war. But, on my mom’s side, the family came from Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri...and so I have forebears on both sides.
President Lincoln, at Gettysburg, set the stage for the healing of this great nation by honoring both sides. He was a truly great man.
Thanks for posting those!
I love walking the battlefield early in the morning with the mist still hanging in the air and no one else around. It’s eerie.
My pleasure.
There’s no place like it.
They certainly don’t make college professors like that anymore.
My great, great, grandfather served in Co. B of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry from Green County. “Stock’s Volunteers”. He was wounded at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee and was paroled at Camp Douglas, Illinois
My granddad probably fought your granddad. He fought all the way down to Nashville and Chattanooga.
On my father’s side my relative was in the 1st Maine calvary. They got to the battlefield on the 2nd and saw action on the 3rd.
Wow.
Another ancestor served in Co. F of the 15th Alabama Infantry before he was wounded and came to Texas
Holy crap. He’s lucky he got out of there alive.
He died the following year in Virginia from a fever.
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