Page 15 - Gettysburg weekend book

Sickles Salient-The left of
the Federal line was held by
Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles'
Corps. Sickles was dissatis-
fied with his assigned posi-
tion and in the early after-
noon, without orders, he ad-
vanced his line nearly half a
mile west in order to take
advantage of the high open
ground around a nearby
peach orchard. creating
a salient, which could be at-
tacked from multiple sides;
and forced his Corps to de-
fend lines that were too long
for them to defend. Meade
was furious about this insub-
ordination, but it was too
late to do anything about it.
Little Round Top– Siclkes’ movement now left the high
ground of Little Round top unoccupied.. Meade’s chief engi-
neer, Gouvernor Warren, realizing its importance dispatched a
brigade under the command of Strong Vincent to take positions
there. The Confederates had also seen that Little Round Top
was unoccupied and seeing an opportunity to outflank the Union
army, launched an attack. The four regiments, the 16th Michi-
gan, 44th New York, 83rd Pennsylvania and the 20th
Maine were positioned by Vincent with the Maine regiment on
the far left. They arrived just in time to meet the Rebel advance.

After 90 minutes of holding the Union left, the 20th Maine was
running very low on ammunition. Chamberlain ordered his men
to fix bayonets and planned a right wheel maneuver down the
hill to sweep the Alabama regiments off the hill. The successful
charge led to the capture of many Confederates and effectively
ended the assault on Little Round Top.