Which unit was driven from Big Round Top

gary

Captain
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
After the battle for Little Round Top was over, there were still some Confederates on Big Round Top. They had been harassing the Union troops as far away as the Wickert House on Taneytown Road. Finally, the 3rd Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves along with the 20th Maine stormed and captured Big Round Top. Which Corn-Fed unit was driven from there?

Thanks, M-T mines wanna no.
 
It appears that only the 15th and 47th Ala, reached the summit of BRT,as they chased a small band of Union sharpshooters.
The 4th Ala. moved with the 4th and 5th Texas along the western slope as they moved toward the southern face of LRT.
It looks like the 15th and 47th stopped at the summit for a bit, then moved down BRT toward Vincent's position on LRT. The 47th moved first, followed by the 15th Ala.
To me, that shooting would be more likely by the 15th Ala, but.....it could have been either or both regiments.
Nothing is said about anyone being left at the summit of LRT, but I am using Gettysburg-Day Two-A Study in Maps, by John Imhof. I think we can safely say that it was more likely one of these 2 units and not the 4th Ala. But, then again, I could be wrong. Maybe Kelly can help us here.
Chuck in Il.
 
I just went thru Coddington. 1st Colonel Rice was ordered to take BRT, who suggested that some regiments of Col. Fisher's Third Brigade of the Penns. Reserves could do the job, but Fisher 'demured' and referred the matter to General Crawford, who was busy on another part of the field.
Crawford finally came over and agreed that BRT should be taken and ordered Fisher to take it. Fisher took his time in getting started. Rice became impatient and ordered Chamberlain to storm the hill. He woke up his men and led them up the hill in the dark to the summit. The Confederates offered little resistance. After a considerable delay 2 of Fisher's regiments, finding a back road up the hill, came up in support of the 20th Maine. So it appears that the 20th Maine actually secured the summit of BRT.
No mention is made of which Confederate unit or units were on the summit. I'll look thru my Getts material and see if I can find anything, unless, as mentioned in the earlier post, Kelly can help us here. It will probably be Monday before I can check, as I'm off, in the morning, to another re-enactment not far from me.
Chuck in Il.
 
Pulled up a copy of Law's Alabama Brigade, Laine and Penny, White Main 1996.

15th Alabama rallied on BRT around 9 pm. Skirmished with 2 USSS. Law's Bde was withdrawn to the base of the hill to form it's new line. About midnite the Bde attempted to send picketts back towards the top of the hill, under the Bde Adjutant, Cpt Thomas Christian. They were captured by the 20th Maine who had just arrived.
 
Gettysburg Magazine #19 pg. 89, in an article about Fisher's Brigade at Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried. "but Big Round Top contained only some men from Col. Willian C. Oates' 15th and 47th Alabama regiments, and 'perhaps' some from Brig. Gen. Jerome Robertson's Brigade."
If any of Robertson's Brigade were there it would most likely be men from the 4th and 5th Texas. One of the articles I read today also indicated that Oates said he saw some of the 47th head back up BRT after they broke in front of the 20th Maine, and of course, its in one of the Getts Mags I read but I can't remember in which one. I can try to dig it back out if anyone needs the info.
David, you get those back issues yet?
Chuck in Il.
 
>David, you get those back issues yet?
Chuck in Il.<

My Morningside "care package" is awaiting one back ordered book. Sometime in the next two weeks....
 
My wife's great great grandfather Hershel Glenn was in the 15th Alabama that day under Col. William Oates. It's curious that Col. Chamberlain who had a fancy degree and was later governor of Maine became a movie star and received considerable press and is still talked about today. Poor old Bill Oates who had been in jail a time or two and took a few years to pass the bar exam in Alabama also became governor of his state. To the victor apparently go the spoils. The 15th Alabama fought their way to Glory on several occasions and are worth the read. Men from Pike, Barbour and Dale counties in southeast Alabama.
 
Ed Bearrs pointed out that Chamberlain thought highly of himself.
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He did deserve credit, but Bearrs also points out so does Strong Vincent who led the first troops up there. So does Weed who led his troops and sealed the breach when the 16th Mich. got overrun. So does the 1st Minn for holding back the Corn-feds. So does a lot of other officers and men that day.
 
Had JEB Stuart shown up on time, our Alabama boys might have kicked the good Col. Chamberlain's butt. Alas....
 
Larry,
How so. Think it likely that Stuart would have charged his regiments up LRT???
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Chuck in Il.
 
Larry, Staurt and his command came upon the field on the other side of the "fishhook" and were in a better position to effect the outcome near Culps Hill. IIRC Stuart arrived w/ 180 odd supply wagons presented him by an ungrateful Union Army... they were much needed by the ANV.
 
Let me see if I can extricate myself from this one? To answer Charles, no, JEB Stuart wouldn't have charged up the hill, but hopefully would have flanked to the southeast and approached from the rear, giving the Maine boys something to think about Law's brigade gave it their best shot. Any such activity would have helped the southern cause immensely and certainly the fate of the 15th Alabama.

As for Shane, you have caught me in the crossfire. Without paying attention I plucked JEB Stuart's name out of my left ear, since I recall his being late for the battle. I also had an ancestor of my own, John Calvn Rouse, private with the 48th Virginia who was on/near Culp's Hill for far too long. He walked away.

Shane, are you confusing JEB Stuart with George H. Steuart who was the last tip of the "j" at Culps Hill? Here is an excerpt from that brigade monument:

C. S. A.
ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
EWELL'S CORPS JOHNSON'S DIVISION
STEUART'S BRIGADE
1st Maryland Battalion 1st and 3rd North Carolina 1Oth 23rd and 37th
Virginia Infantry

July 1. Arrived about nightfall and took position near Hanover Road about a mile east of Rock Creek with left wing at edge of woods.

July 2. Crossing Rock Creek at 6 P. M. the 3D N. C. and 1st Md. attacked the lesser summit of Culp's Hill. Reinforced later by the other regiments the Union breastworks thinly manned at some points were occupied to the southern base of the main summit but only after a vigorous and desperate conflict.

July 3. The Union troops reinforced the conflict at dawn and it raged fiercely until 11 A. M. when this Brigade and the entire line fell back to the base of the hill and from thence moved about midnight to Seminary Ridge northwest of the town.

July 4. Occupied Seminary Ridge. About 10 P. M. began the march to Hagerstown.

Present about 1700 Killed 83 Wounded 409 Missing 190 Total 682

Now I need to go figure out where JEB Stuart was located when he arrived. Could be I owe an apology and a swift kick to my own butt.

Looking at my copy of JEB STUART by John W. Thomason Jr. (Schribner's 1944), there is a description of JEB Stuart's action on the third day at Gettysburg. "About noon, Stuart led his brigades out the York Pike..... for two and a half miles he followed the pike.... Behind these woods he placed hampton, Fitz Lee, and Chambliss, while Jenkin's men, dismounted....Across the flat, three-eights of a mile to the east, is a long stand of timber, in which wait, out of sight, the squadrons of Gregg, Kilpatrick, and Custer.... Stuart shells the woods a little....it is 2:30 pm, he will attack where he is....Chambliss, Fitz Lee and Hampton ride down - in array very splendid, Yankee observers note: flags and fuidons in place, bright sabres at the carry...Then, a straight pounding fight... The blue dismounted lines are driven from the flat. the squadrons of Gregg and Custer and Buford come charging out and cut up Jenkins. Hampton and Lee meet them furiously, and the battle sways in a dense dust cloud, up and down, now toward the Hanover Pike, now toward Stuart's wood. Wade Hampton, fighting among his troopers, is slashed terribly, to the skull, with a sabre... squadrons draw off Fitz Lee, Hampton and Chambliss to the ground from which they started and Gregg and Buford and Kilpatrick to their old line. Dead horses and dead men lie in the trampled flat between. Stuart has seen no sign of a gray break-through yonder. Stuart's loss is 119 in three brigades...

Shane this is not Culp's Hill. That was old George Stuart. Yes, JEB Stuart and the action described WAS close by however, maybe a mile or less to the north. Stuart left here on the evening of the 3rd of July to help Lee prepare for the retreat to the west.
 
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