The fighting 177musketry in front, the Confederates reached
the crest and held there for some time before
Northern reinforcements flocked to the site
in enough numbers to expel them.
Meanwhile, the most portentous
Confederate initiative during the Battle of
Gettysburg had faltered far down on the
Federal left, near the Round Tops.
At Chancellorsville, Lee had won a great
victory by deploying to the point of decision a
flanking column led by his most trusted
subordinate, Stonewall Jackson. With Jackson
dead, James Longstreet was clearly Lee's
primary military asset. Longstreet did not want
to fight on the offensive, however, and
apparently spent 1-3 July sulking over Lee's
variant view of things. Such defensive
triumphs as the Battle of Fredericksburg
appealed to Longstreet (and every other
Confederate), but how often would one find a
pliant Ambrose Burnside willing to slaughter
his own army? Longstreet did not wish to take
the initiative at all, so only grudgingly - and
very tardily - moved away with Lee's
maneuver element. The army commander
remained near his other corps commanders,
both of them brand new. After a sluggish
march, marked by confusion and backtracking,
Longstreet's column arrived opposite the
Federal left in front of the two Round Tops.
The nature of the violent combat that
swept across the fields and hills south of
Gettysburg on 2 July was affected in a
fundamental way by the impulsive actions
of Federal General Daniel E. Sickles. The
General came not from a military
background but from the political realm,
having been a powerful Congressman from
New York. Sickles' legacy includes not just
his Civil War service, but also a series of
bumptious endeavors: he killed his wife's
lover before the war, and escaped on a plea
of temporary insanity; as postwar US
ambassador to Spain, he had an affair with
that country's queen; and he played the
central role in preserving Gettysburg
battlefield early in the twentieth century. In
July 1863, Sickles always insisted, he had
saved the battle itself for the Union, by
pushing forward in front of the main line
General George E. Pickett, a foppish fellow of starkly
limited capacity, became one of the most famous names
in American military history because of the mighty
charge on 3 July 1863. He and his division did little else
during the wan (Public domain)without Meade's permission. As Longstreet
slowly approached action, Sickles moved
forward into his path.
The assault by Longstreet's Confederates
drove Sickles off his new position, and cost
the Federal general his leg (after the war, a
Congressman once again, Sickles took
visiting constituents to the medical museum
in Washington to show them his leg bones,
donated as an exhibit). General William
Barksdale of Mississippi, as fiery an ante
bellum politician as Sickles had been, led
a dramatic charge into Sickles' line.
Southerners swept east and northeast in
a wide arc that resulted in bitter fighting
across a landscape that became forever
famous: The Peach Orchard; The Wheatfield;
Devil's Den; Little Round Top. The latter
position held the key to that sector of the
battlefield, looking down on the others and
also commanding Cemetery Ridge to the
north. After a desperate struggle,
Confederates from Texas and Alabama
receded from the crest of the hill, leaving a
ghastly harvest of prostrate comrades behind
them. As darkness fell, the Federals held the