Combatants Clash on Little Round Top

Tom Elmore

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Jan 16, 2015
The 4th and 5th Texas and 4th Alabama confront Vincent’s right, as both sides seek cover behind numerous boulders in the vicinity. The 44th Alabama’s advance against Devil’s Den is countered by the 4th Maine. The 47th and 15th Alabama make slow progress up the steep face of Big Round Top. Weed’s brigade arrives along the road skirting the northern edge of Little Round Top. Map depicts the situation at 4:40 p.m. on July 2.

Our skirmishers were driven in, followed closely by the enemy” – Captain A. M. Judson, Company E, 83rd Pennsylvania.

The positions of the Sixteenth Michigan and Forty-fourth New York were first struck; then the fighting gradually rolled around toward the left” – Captain Eugene A. Nash, 44th New York.

Those of us in the front line, as soon as we were uncovered, received the first fire of the hidden Federals. A long line of us went down, three of us close together” – Private William C. Ward, Company G, 4th Alabama.

Their first volley was most destructive to our line” – Corporal John W. Stevens, Company K, 5th Texas.

During the charge, a portion of the Fourth Alabama … overlapped our line” – Private, Company H, 5th Texas.

Those [U.S. Sharpshooters] who went up to the right fired a few shots at my flank. To meet this I deployed Company A and moved it by the left flank to protect my right, and continued my rugged ascent until we reached the top” – Colonel William C. Oates, 15th Alabama.

In the edge of the wood of small pines appeared the 44th Alabama … uncomfortably near” – Commissioner(s) of the 4th Maine.

As the line emerged from the woods into the open space … a sheet of flame [from the 4th Maine] burst from the rocks less than a hundred yards away. A few scattering shots in the beginning gave warning in time for my men to lie flat, and thus largely to escape the effects of the main volley. They doubtless seemed to the enemy to be all dead; but the volume of fire which they immediately returned proved that they were very much alive” – Colonel William F. Perry, 44th Alabama.

“[In the initial enemy volley, Private] James Matthews was killed outright, and [Corporal] William and [Sergeant] Archie Luckie, brothers, were both shot down” – Member of Company C, 44th Alabama.

The 140th N. Y. Vols. was in front … 91st Penn. Vols. next and 146th N.Y. and 155th Pa.” – First Lieutenant Azor S. Marvin, Jr., Assistant Adjutant General on Brigadier General Stephen Weed’s staff.

On the march to the front, the 140th N. Y. at the head” – Captain Joseph M. Leeper, 140th New York.

We were ordered … at left oblique through the point of woods to an open space” – Benjamin D. Cooley, Company K, 6th New Jersey.

Sources:
-History of the Eighty-Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, by A. M. Judson, Erie, PA: B. F. F. Lynn, Publisher, p. 67.
-Historical Sketch of the 44th New York, by Capt. Eugene A. Nash, New York at Gettysburg, I:370.
-Incidents and Personal Experiences on the Battlefield of Gettysburg, by W. C. Ward, Confederate Veteran magazine, vol. 8 (1900), pp. 345-349.
-Reminiscences of the Civil War, by Judge John W. Stevens, Hillsboro, TX: 1902.
-Hood’s Charge at Gettysburg, Private [not identified], Company H, 5th Texas, Camp Fires of the Confederacy, ed. by Ben La Bree, Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company, 1898, p. 367.
-Gettysburg, William C. Oates and Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell, ed. by Glenn LaFantasie, Bantam Books, 1992.
-Maine at Gettysburg, Report of the Maine Commissioners, 4th Maine.
-The Devil’s Den, by Gen. W. F. Perry, Confederate Veteran magazine, vol. 9 (1901), p. 161.
-The Horror of War, by John Purifoy [citing a letter from his brother in Company C, 44th Alabama], Confederate Veteran magazine, vol. 33 (1925), p. 254.
-1st Lt. Azor S. Marvin, Jr., to Gen. Warren, Bachelder Papers, 1:511.
-Captain Joseph M. Leeper, 140th New York, Bachelder Papers, 2:896.
-January 18, 1888 letter of Benjamin D. Cooley, Company K, 6th New Jersey, Final Report of the Gettysburg Battle-field Commission of New Jersey, Trenton: John L. Murphy Publishing Company, 1891, p. 103.
 

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