Gettysburg Question

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Carl S RE:Gettysburg Question 4/29/2006 6:58:42 AM

Yes. I cant recall if the NY regiment charged with the 20th Maine, or if that was a seperate attack. The battle for Little Round Top dragged out for several hours and was spread over the entire hill. Between the woods, growing exhaustion of the attackers, loss of control by the senior commanders, and other battlefield friction it was more of cluster of fights rather than a single massed action like Picketts Charge. Had the Confederates suceeded in breaking any other Federal regiment on the hill it is probable the entire defense would have quickly fallen apart. All the Federal regimental commanders were experinced and reasonably trained and understood the situation. The brigade commander and I think the divsion commander had briefed them all on the situation and given 'hold at all cost orders' when they were originally deployed on the hill. As the fight developed and both sides neared their breaking point a counter attack became an increaingly attractive choice to the individual regimental commanders for getting rid of the confederates in their sector. I'd guess some of these counter attacks were not full blown charges like the 20 Maine or the New Yorkers. As Confederate regiments were rallying for a new advance just moving a little ways down the hill to fire a volley into them would have done a lot. The brigade commander was also directly commanding the battle and he may have initiated counter attacks. Published historys only cover a small portion of the events in a battle. It is likely that otherr ''charges' on Little Round Top have not ever been described by historians and are only documented in a few crumbling diarys and letters.

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S-2 RE:Gettysburg Question/1st Minnesota? 4/29/2006 8:00:01 AM

Check this out. I pulled this down off the NPS Gettysburg site- "At approximately 6:30, General McLaws sent forward his Mississippi brigade commanded by Brig. General William Barksdale, who had waited impatiently with his men at Pitzer's Woods. The Mississippi attack rammed through Union regiments near the Peach Orchard and other Confederate units rushed from Seminary Ridge to exploit the break. The battered Union line wavered and slowly collapsed under the relentless Confederate pressure that swept across the Abraham Trostle Farm at the center of Sickles' line. Here the southerners found themselves at the doorway of a sizeable gap in the Union line between Cemetery Hill and Little Round Top, held by a handful of Union artillerymen and one regiment of foot soldiers, the 1st Minnesota Infantry. The Minnesota regiment was about to do the impossible- stop the Confederate attack before they reached the center of Cemetery Ridge. The Minnesotans charged into the Confederates and succeeded in slowing their attack, but at a terrible cost. Union reinforcements arrived and drove the Confederates back, but not before they had threatened the Union line right up to its center." Damned if that doesn't sound like it happened right next to 20th Maine. So who REALLY anchored the Union left flank? Googled up the 20th Maine. Here's Chamberlain's AAR, written 6 July, 1863- REPORT OF COL. JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN, Twentieth Maine Infantry. FIELD NEAR EMMITSBURG, July 6, 1863. SIR: In compliance with the request of the colonel commanding the brigade, I have the honor to submit a somewhat detailed report of the operations of the Twentieth Regiment Maine Volunteers in the battle of Gettysburg, on the 2d and 3d instant. Having acted as the advance guard, made necessary by the proximity of the enemy's cavalry, on the march of the day before, my command on reaching Hanover, Pa., just before sunset on that day, were much worn, and lost no time in getting ready for an expected bivouac. Rations were scarcely issued, and the men about preparing supper, when rumors that the enemy had been encountered that day near Gettysburg absorbed every other interest, and very soon orders came to march forthwith to Gettysburg. My men moved out with a promptitude and spirit extraordinary, the cheers and welcome they received on the road adding to their enthusiasm. After an hour or two of sleep by the roadside just before daybreak, we reached the heights southeasterly of Gettysburg at about 7 a.m., July 2. Massed at first with the rest of the division on the right of the road, we were moved several times farther toward the left. Although expecting every moment to be put into action and held strictly in line of battle, yet the men were able to take some rest and make the most of their rations. Somewhere near 4 p.m. a sharp cannonade, at some distance to our left and front, was the signal for a sudden and rapid movement of our whole division in the direction of this firing, which grew warmer as we approached. Passing an open field in the hollow ground in which some of our batteries were going into position, our brigade reached the skirt of a piece of woods, in the farther edge of which there was a heavy musketry fire, and when about to go forward into line we received from Colonel Vincent, commanding the brigade, orders to move to the left at the double-quick, when we took a farm road crossing Plum Run in order to gain a rugged mountain spur called Granite Spur, or Little Round Top. The enemy's artillery got range of our column as we were climbing the spur, and the crashing of the shells among the rocks and the tree tops made us move lively along the crest. One or two shells burst in our ranks. Passing to the southern slope of Little Round Top, Colonel Vincent indicated to me the ground my regiment was to occupy, informing me that this was the extreme left of our general line, and that a desperate attack was expected in order to turn that position, concluding by telling me I was to ?hold that ground at all hazards.? This was the last word I heard from him. In order to commence by making my right firm, I formed my regiment on the right into line, giving such direction to the line as should best secure the advantage of the rough, rocky, and stragglingly wooded ground. The line faced generally toward a more conspicuous eminence southwest of ours, which is known as Sugar Loaf, or Round Top. Between this and my position intervened a smooth and thinly wooded hollow. My line formed, I immediately detached Company B, Captain Morrill commanding, to extend from my left flank across this hollow as a line of skirmishers, with directions to act as occasion might dictate, to prevent a surprise on my exposed flank and rear. The artillery fire on our position had meanwhile been constant and heavy, but my formation was scarcely complete when the artillery was replaced by a vigorous infantry assault upon the center of our brigade

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BasinBictory RE:Gettysburg Question/1st Minnesota? 4/30/2006 6:00:34 AM

Actually, I just read the wikipedia.com article about the battle of Little Round Top, and while indeed the stand and charge of the 20th Maine is in it, the 140th NY was the leftmost (southern) of the adjoining brigade and had to move quickly in order to plug the gap that was being opened by the 4th and 5th TX regiments between Vincent's (Rice's) brigade and the adjoining brigade. The article mentions that the 140th "charged" into action, but does not say whether it was a bayonet charge or simply a quick movement to get in position in order to lock up the Union line. Also, while I was in that room where they do the electric light map of the battle, the Battle of Little Round Top is given less mention and not than the fighting on the right flank of the line, up around Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. The narration says it was the bloodiest fighting of the war.

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AlbanyRifles RE:Gettysburg Question/1st Minnesota? 5/1/2006 3:08:49 PM

1. The assault by the 1st Minnesota occured about 800 yards farther north of the ROund Tops up Cemetary Ridge into the area of the Wheatfield. 2. The 140th NY did conduct a local counterattck to close the gap in the line. The 20th ME launched its coutnerattack with bayonets when it was out of ammo and had to handle an assult. 3. Teh fighting around Culp's was exceptionally bloody....but there are definitely worse places to fight during the war....The Round Forest and the Slaughter Pen at Stones River, The Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania, The Peach Orchard at Shiloh, The Cornfield, East Woods and West Woods at Antietam...they all were bloody.

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S-2 RE:Gettysburg Question/1st Minnesota? 5/1/2006 4:44:19 PM

Yeah, you're correct. I noticed that after re-reading the section. In another note, over 50,000 veterans of the battle from both sides gathered on the 50th anniversary of the battle to walk the grounds. All had to be 67 years or older. Traveling at that age in 1913 could not have been easy. Nor the memories.

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AlbanyRifles RE:Gettysburg Question/1st Minnesota? 5/2/2006 9:48:18 AM

Supporting that reunion was the single biggest mission of the US Army that year. The Army provided over a regiment of troops to provide the logistics and manpower needed. There were special trains from all over the country running into Gettysburg.

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AlbanyRifles RE:Gettysburg Question/1st Minnesota? 5/2/2006 10:02:43 AM

link Also A May 1908 Act of the Pennsylvania State Assembly initiated the organization of the 50th reunion of Confederate and Union soldiers on the battlefield at Gettysburg by creating the Battle of Gettysburg Commission. That commission formally invited all other states and the U.S. Congress to participate in the organization of a fitting observance of the semicentennial of the greatest battle fought in the Western Hemisphere. In June 1910, the U.S. Congress created a joint special commission of cooperation for the event, and during the next three years several conferences were held with representatives of the various states as well as the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veterans association, and the corresponding Rebel organization, the United Confederate Veterans. The reunion was funded by a $185,000 appropriation from Pennsylvania and $150,000 from the federal government. As the date for the reunion grew near, most railroad companies offered reduced fares for the 40,000 veterans expected to travel to the event, and the commission started preparing the reception for the honored guests. A great camp was set up around the battlefield; the War Department provided camp and garrison equipment with all quartermaster, commissary, and hospital supplies necessary for the care of the attendees. The camp was opened on June 29, 1913, and the first meals were served to veterans at supper that evening. As the veterans arrived they were greeted by Boy Scouts, the Boy Scout organization had begun in England just Six years before the reunion, who escorted them to their respective camps, which were organized into state encampments. The Scouts, who were quartered in the Seminary on Seminary Ridge, were constantly available in the camps to run errands for the elderly veterans. The four days of events were organized into Veterans' Day, Military Day, Civic Day, and National Day, but the overriding activity of the veterans was intermingling and meeting with one another and talking over the events of 50 years before.

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S-2 RE: AR Reply 5/2/2006 10:25:08 AM

"These venerable men crowding here to this famous field have set us a great example of devotion and utter sacrifice. They were willing to die that the people might live. But their task is done. Their day is turned into evening. They look to us to perfect what they have established. Their work is handed unto us, to be done in another way but not in another spirit. Our day is not over; it is upon us in full tide." Woodrow Wilson, Gettysburg, July 4, 1913. What a marvelous gathering! How interesting could it have been to be a boy scout here? Old enough to "get it", their eyes must have been like saucers listening to these old guys.

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S-2 RE: AR Reply-Boy Scouts 5/2/2006 10:28:19 AM

You're a troop leader, correct? I assume that you've had your charges up there a time or two?

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AlbanyRifles RE: AR Reply-Boy Scouts 5/8/2006 10:13:41 AM

Yup....but not my own troop....yet! I have taken probably 15 Socut troops/Cub Packs there ove the past few years. We are scheduling our troop in abaout 18 months for this. We also want to do Antietam. Its really a great place to bring the kids.

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