Rio Bravo
First Sergeant
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2013
- Location
- Suffolk, U.K.
Was it because there were no fresher Regts available or was it because the 15th had never lost a battle before ?
When Law's troops first went forward, Oates men were the 3rd regiment in line. Law saw the line being squeezed by Big Round Top so he moved the 48th and 44th Alabama to the left and they attacked Devil's Den and this left Oates on the far right. Otherwise Oates men would of probably hit where the 44th New York or 16th Michigan troops were.
A side note, water was needed to clean muskets so the lack of water not only affected the men, but their ability to load rounds into fouled muskets.Oates had actually attempted to have his mens canteens filled & a party of 22 men were sent off with the canteens to find water. Unfortunately for the 15th AL these men were all captured.
Besides even if they hadn't been the 15th AL was soon after ordered to advance & the water party probably wouldn't have been able to find them soon enough in any event.
But I bet Oates wished he had those 22 men in the fight with the 20th Maine. There were some touch & go moments in that fight in which ever man was needed....
Remember the 4th and 5th Texas went up the front face of LRT (the western face) as well. They tried it several times but couldn't make it any further - and they were just as exhausted as Law's Alabama Brigade was, having marched over 20 miles that morning. If the Texans couldn't than I would bet no man could.Well I had no idea that the 15th Alabama went up Big Round Top before attacking up LRT ! ..........Amazing.
Does anyone think that the Texas Brigade might have stood a better chance of capturing LRT ?