Story

Little Round Top Restored

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Authors: Edwin S. Grosvenor

Historic Era: Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

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| Volume 70, Issue 4

A statue of Gen. G.K. Warren, chief engineer of the Union Army who ordered troops to defend the decisive position, now looks over an improved view.
A statue of Gen. G.K. Warren, who ordered troops to defend the decisive position on Little Round Top, now looks over an improved view of the battlefield, with the Peach Orchard and Devil's Den in the near distance below the heights. Edwin S. Grosvenor

In one of the most dramatic moments of the Civil War, Union soldiers at the battle of Gettysburg rushed up Little Round Top just ahead of Confederate troops who had the same idea: capture the position that commanded a view of nearly the entire battlefield where 165,000 men were struggling to kill each other.

“A great basin lay before us full of smoke and fire, and literally swarming with riderless horses and fighting, fleeing, and pursuing men,” recalled Lt. Porter Farley

Earlier that afternoon, at about 3:30 PM, Gen. G.K. Warren, chief engineer of the Union army, had climbed the hill and was shocked when he saw the position was largely undefended. Confederate troops were moving forward from woods just below him. If the rebels seized Little Round Top, they could outflank the line of Union troops that stretched for two miles north along Cemetery Ridge.

“I saw that this was the key of the whole position,” Gen. Warren wrote later.

Gen Strong Vincent courtsey of Hagen History Center
Gen. Strong Vincent, a 26-year-old lawyer, commanded troops that first took Little Round Top and held their position. A memorial marks the spot where Vincent gave his life for the Union on the mountain. Hagen Historical Society

An officer sent by Warren encountered a brigade of the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry and informed them what the general had discovered. Acting without orders, their commander, Gen. Strong Vincent, quickly moved his 1,300 men to the top of Little Round Top. Vincent was a former ironworker who had studied law at Harvard and proven himself in two years of fighting in Virginia. Promoted after his superiors were killed or resigned, he was made brigadier general at the age of 26. Recently married, Vincent wrote his pregnant wife Elizabeth just before the battle that, “If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous cause that ever widowed a woman.”

Vincent moved his men into position among the rocks as the Confederates approached. When the men on his right flank appeared to be wavering, he jumped on a large boulder and ordered them, “Don’t give an inch!”

One of the regiments under Vincent's command, the 20th Maine led by Col. Joshua Chamberlain, has received much of the fame for the defense of Little Round Top, but there is no doubt that the efforts and bravery of Vincent were critical in the eventual Union victory. Vincent impressed on Chamberlain the importance of his holding