July 1st, 1863: Day 1

July 2nd

During the night, both sides recieved massive amounts of rienforcements. By morning, Union troops spread from Culps Hill around Cemetary Hill all the way down to Little Round Top, a smaller hill to the south of the town. This formed the famous "fish hook" told about in many history books and lessons. The Confederate troops made similar adjustments, spreading from outside Culps Hill bordering the Union troops all the way around to the bottom of Cemetary Hill. That morning, Lee made his srategies to attack both flanks of the Union army, with General Ewell attacking at Culps Hill, and General James Longstreet sending his corps south to try and take the little hills to the south(Big and Little Round Top). His hope was to take the little hills, and expose the entire Union left flank to Confederate battery fire will collapsing the right flank, endangering the Union troops at Culps Hill. Upon Longstreets advancement, General George Sickles moved from his defensive position between the little hills and Cemetary Hill and advanced forward into the Peach Orchard, virtually right on top of Longstreets troops ascending towards the Union flank. This was obviously not a good move, and exposed the entire Union Army's left flank. As General Meade rode out to see Sickles, Meade said "General, I believe your forces are too far forward." Upon being badly beated by Longstreet's corps, Sickles withdrew his troops and had them return to the Union mid-center. As ordered, Longstreet's troops continued toward the little hills. A Union scout was a on top of Little Round Top, and saw Longstreet's troops coming, and noticed that there were no Union troops to stop them. He also could see virtually the entire Union army from his position, and realized the importance of this position. He urgently wrote a letter and dispatched it to General Meade. As the rider was travelling through fresh troops arriving on the battlefield, Union Colonal Vincent intercepted the telegram. He knew that by the time the letter got to General Meade, and the Union troops arrived to defend it, Longstreet's forces would have already taken the hill. Vincent, disobeying orders, ordered his brigade to get to the top of the hill. After arriving at the top, he assigned most of his regiments to defend the front side of the hill. However, seeing as that the front of the hill was extremely rocky and hard to take, he placed the 20th Maine to defend the flank, saying "Under no circumstances must your retreat!" Sure enough, the Confederate forces rounded to the back of the hill, and tried to sweep the Union forces from behind. However, Colonal Chamberlain, the colonal of the 20th Maine, and his men held against numerous Confederate attacks. Knowing that his troops were nearly out of ammo, and outnumbered, Colonal Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge down the mountain, driving the enemy units back away from the mountain. This would prove to be a determining factor in the battle, and Chamberlain would later recieve high promotions including Major General because of it. After both flanks had not broken, Lee ordered his men to fall back and rest for the night. It was the end to one of the bloodiest days in American history.