“As we took the matter very coolly,” said White, “many a brave Southron threw up his arms and fell. “Just in front of where I was, the land was open and, as they were mostly dressed in butternut colored clothes they had the appearance of a plowed field being closed in mass formation.”Īlthough outnumbered more than 10 to 1, the sharpshooters calmly took aim, then let loose a murderous volley. “They came yelling and firing and struggling over fences and through the timber,” White would later recall. Concealed behind a low stone wall, the rifleman took in the spectacle of the advancing enemy. Confederate troops advance on Little Round Top. They were the 2 nd United States Sharpshooters, one of the most dangerous outfits of the American Civil War. These 204 Union troops represented the only Northern opposition between Law’s brigade and Little Round Top. Unseen to the Rebels, a loose line of Federal troops, about 900 yards long, was posted from the base of Big Round Top approximately a quarter mile to the south. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia could proceed, possibly as far as Washington, D.C.Īs the Confederate skirmishers moved forward in advance of the brigade, there seemed to be nothing between them and the summit. The Union line at Gettysburg would be smashed and Robert E. If the Confederates could secure that one rocky hill, the remainder of the Federal line could be enfiladed from the heights and rendered indefensible. Law’s objective was Little Round Top, a hill, then unoccupied, that dominated the Federal line. JULY 2, 1863, 4 p.m.: The great Confederate turning movement at Gettysburg, which was meant to roll-up the Federal line from left-to-right, finally stepped-off, General Evander Law ’s Alabama brigade leading the way. Sharpshooters were essentially a 20th century battle unit, fighting a 19th century war.” A Union army marksman takes aim at the enemy in Winslow Homer’s 1863 painting ‘Sharpshooter.’ (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “The U.S.
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