Myth of the importance of Little Round Top

samgrant

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I read this somewhere, just recently, but can't remember where.

There were several good reasons why securing LRT was not as important as it has been portrayed.

Among these were the arguments that 1) it most likely would have been fairly easily retaken, 2) that contrary to the idea that the Rebs could enfilade the Yanks from that position, that there was no field of view to the Union forces on Cemetery Ridge, 3) that it is very doubtful that the Rebs could have brought batteries up to the top of LRT before they were resisted (see #1). Etc.

Any comments?

I know of one of you who has already weighed in of this topic from something I found on another forum:

"Little Round Top
New to the site...don't know if this has been covered already but here it is...I see the idea of Little Round Top being a crucial position as simply being a myth generated from romanticized histiography. Some brief thoughts on Little Round Top:

The simple geography of LRT tends to debunk this myth. While a useful position for the North as an artillery position and a place for the flank to tie into to, it was not crucial for the South to capture it. In fact, LRT was useless to the South and its capture would not have affected the outcome of the battle.
The reverse slope of LRT was wooded at the time of the war. Anyone facing the Union rear could not see anything but the trees in front of them. If the Confederates had turned around Hazlett's guns, they couldn't have hit anything. The myth that Confederate artillery could have commanded the Union rear and cause a retreat is simply not true.
Also, the Confederates could not have hit the rest of the Union line. LRT narrows at the end facing Cemetery Ridge. Perhaps one gun could have been placed on this side of the hill, and even then barely registered on Cemetery Ridge. Clearly, the Cemetery Ridge line would not have been compromised by Confederate occupation of LRT.

Not to mention that it was not part of the Confederate plans to take the hill...or high on the Union priority list to defend.Or that the Yankees could have easily retaken the hill, probably just with Weed and Crawford."

That was from our own beloved nbforrest on 09/21/05.
 
I tend to agree, in particular about the guns... for the CS to get guns up there would have been a herculean effort but mot important it would have taken time. Look how difficult it was to get the Union battery up there and the CS men would have more than twice as far to go.
 
Ah, one of my favorite topics! I do think that LRT is greatly exaggerated in its importance. The idea that rebel artillery could have used it as an effective position is just not realistic. LRT was important only insofar as the fact that the Union line ended there. If Longstreet's en echelon attack had gone off as planned, LRT would have been necessary to capture just to roll up the Union flank, not as a particularly important position itself. It did not figure at all into the Confederate attack plan as a target, which is very telling. At the time the attack stepped off, the Union line did not end at LRT. Thus, it was not a necessary topic.

Gary Adelman has written a little book called The Myth of Little Round Top. It raises some good points but I felt that it didn't have enough research or exploration behind it to really debunk the myth.

Respectfully
 
Wasnt LRT vital considering how close the Taneytown rd was? Arty may have been been difficult to place or open a field of fire to in order to interdict supply lines, but infantry can just as easily cut them, just with shorter range. However, it would serve little point since the union was fully up by july 3rd. What would make sense, is to use it as an anchor to send a force South and east. Lee had divided his army in the past (2nd Manasas, Chancellorsville) in order to defeat a numerically and logistically superior enemy. Would Lee have condoned a movement by what was left of first corp, approximately 13K strong, 8K between McClaws/Hood, and about 5K in Picketts. Doing so would cut off washington from the AOP thus creating further panick and possibly a mistake on Meade's part.
Respectfully,
Matt
 
Wasnt LRT vital considering how close the Taneytown rd was?

No, because the Taneytown road can't be seen from LRT. Again, possession of LRT would only be important in the sense that the Union line needed to be rolled up. If the Taneytown road was the objective for Longstreet's attack (it wasn't) LRT would only be important that it had to be taken before striking the road.

Respectfully
 
I've been to Little Round Top and seen the statue of Gouverneur Warren, the Union general who called for troops to defend the position.

Though the configuration of the trees today is surely different from what it was in 1863, I have to say that, looking from that vantage point today, it certainly appears to me that, if the Confederates had been allowed to place artillery up there, they could have done plenty of damage to the Union lines along Cemetery Ridge.

Maybe Warren was wrong then and I am wrong now. But if that's the case, it seems a pity that so many Confederate soldiers died trying to take a hill that would have been of so little use to them, and so many Union soldiers died trying to stop the Confederates' useless attempt to take it.
 
Little Round Top -Not significant

Would Lee have sent artillery to LRT? Unless Longstreet broke through the Cemetery Ridge defense, LRT had no meaning. It was too isolated. Only if one totally ignores AoP artillery, does LRT have much significance.
LRT was a lodgment the ANV could not hold, once Longstreet's Corps fell back on July 2.
 
Whether LRT is over-rated as an important strategic position or not, it was there on LRT that I first heard a gentleman talking about the events that happened there. My first visit to any CW battlefield. He was very articulate and knew his subject well. That was in the mid-80's, and this person, whether a tour guide or not, spoke with such enthusiasm, and passion, that I was prompted to pick up my first book on the CW, which was "The Killer Angels". And I've been hooked ever since.

Terry
 
Even had Lee sent artillery to LRT, it wouldn't have done any good. The wooded east slope prevented any direct fire into the Taneytown Road area and the north slope was so narrow only a gun or two could have been wrestled favor. As an artillery platform for Lee, LRT was pretty much useless.

Respectfully
 
Little Round Top

Well, it was one vicious and heroic fight on both sides. And after the fight, it was of no great lasting importance because the Confederates never captured it. Neither could they capture Culp's Hill or Cemetery Hill or Cemetery Ridge.

What happened at Little Round Top was great for a movie scene, because it was close-in fighting, infantry against infantry. And no movie ever can show the whole.

It was a great day for the 20th Maine. They did what they were ordered to do. No more; no less. Any battle is the sum of its parts; the battle for Little Round Top is no less heroic or totally unimportant. And no one who left that woods could ever say they didn't have the fight of their life.
 
My belief was that the Confederates were attempting to go around the Union left and strike into the rear. Even if they managed to get past the Round Tops, they would have been stopped by V Corps elements and driven back.

Is it possible that the best chance of victory for the ANV was the afternoon of Day One?
 
Downgrading the actual importance LRT does nothing to downgrade the bravery or sacrifice of the men who fought there. Even with LRT as hyped as it is, few people think beyond the 20th ME and maybe the 15th AL. The rest of the outfits on the hill, except for maybe the 140th NY, get a fraction of that attention. The 20th ME fought fine but it's a shame that some of the attention put on that one regiment can't be spread to other equally deserving units.

Respectfully
 
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