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Gettysburg -- The Second Day
By James Emery Vigh of profbruno.com
It is the evening of July 1st at General Robert E.Lee's headquarters. Lee ponders the day's events and receives council from his most trusted general, James Longstreet, who commands one of his corps. Longstreet, who is not good at words, attempts to persuade Lee to abandon the field, and march around the Union position and get between them and Washington -- thus forcing the Army of the Potomac to attack them instead of the other way around. Longstreet feels that the Union position on Culp's Hill, Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge is just too strong. He fears disaster. Lee wants to consult his other corps commanders and sleep on it before deciding what to do. Hill is sick, but Lee does talk to Ewell. Ewell thinks that it would be a bad idea to try to move the army in the face of the enemy. Besides, they have heard nothing from General J.E.B. Stuart, who's job it was to inform Lee of the surrounding ground and the movements of the Union army. Lee sends out parties to look for Stuart, but decides that trying to move the army now would be too dangerous. In the morning, Lee tells Longstreet to attack the Union left flank with his corps. Ewell is supposed to coordinate a "demonstration" on the other flank in cooperation with Longstreet. Longstreet is not keen on this. First of all, he only has 2 out of his 3 divisions. General George Picket's division was last in line and wouldn't arrive until late in the afternoon. He also still feels that the union position is too strong. In addition, he has a problem with trying to move his corps into position without his movements being observed by the Union army. But Lee is adamant. He gives Longstreet explicit instructions on how the attack is to proceed. Lee does not want any flanking movements tried around the Union line because there are just too many unknowns. Longstreet does his best to carry out his orders. It takes a while, but he finally maneuvers his corps into position for the attack. Things have changed though. One of the Union corps, under General Sickles decided to leave their position on the south end of Cemetery Ridge and move forward to occupy positions in a wheat field, a peach orchard, and a place called "Devil's Den". The Union left flank, instead of being anchored on Little Round top, is now "up in the air". What's worse for the Union army, Little Round Top has only a signal corps manning it, and its neighboring hill to the south 'Big Round Top" is left totally unoccupied. One of Longstreet's divisional commanders, General Hood sees this and wants Longstreet to change the plan and go around the Union position, take the Round Tops, and sweep down Cemetery Ridge. Longstreet does not want to disobey General Lee's direct order and tells Hood to proceed as ordered. Hood does so under protest. To the north, meanwhile, General Ewell does not coordinate his "demonstration" with Longstreet. He starts too early and his attack peters out before Longstreet is ready for his own attack. Longstreet finally begins his attack in the late afternoon. His men take the peach orchard and the wheat field, overwhelming the Union forces, but get mired in the "Devil's Den". But they are not able to sweep all the way up and through Cemetery Ridge due to some fast thinking by a Union General by the name of Winfield Scott Hancock. In the meantime, the Union army finally get some forces on Little Round Top just in time to fend off several vicious Confederate attacks. The attack peters out just before nightfall. It was a near thing, but Union forces still hold the high ground. The Round Tops are occupied and artillery batteries now look down on the Confederate positions. Casualties on both sides are dreadful, but the Union army can replace their losses. The Confederates cannot. Worse was to come the next day.
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