Twilight at Little Round Top: July 2, 1863: The Tide Turns at Gettysburg

by Glenn W. LaFantasie

Book Overview

On July 2nd, 1863, forces from the Confederacy's Army of Northern Virginia and the Union's Army of the Potomac clashed over the steep, rocky hill known as Little Round Top. This battle was one of the most brutal and devastating engagements of the American Civil War, and the North's bloody victory there insured their triumph at Gettysburg, setting the stage for the South's ultimate defeat. Using newly discovered documents and rare firsthand sources,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307386635
• ISBN13: 9780307386632
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Little Round Top

The Battle of Little Round Top and the courage of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine have exercised a hold on many Americans understanding of the battle of Gettysburg. Chamberlain's role became viewed as larger-than-life following Michael Scharra's novel, "The Killer Angels" and its subsequent television and movie adaptations. A degree of reaction has set in, as some historians question the significance of Little Round Top to the outcome of Gettysburg and the legendary status accorded to Chamberlain. Glenn Lafantasie's "Twilight at Little Round Top" presents an account of this celebrated battle that manages to be both heroic and gripping as well as sober and balanced. LaFantasie is a former historian at the State Department who has written extensively on the Civil War. He has read and thought about the extensive literature on Little Round Top to produce a reflective study. The most notable aspect of LaFantasie's study is the variety of perspectives he conveys. At times, LaFantasie speaks in the voice of various soldiers who participated in the battle, both Union and Confederate. We learn about historically obscure infantrymen and their motivations, their lives before the War and thereafter. We also see a great deal of the officers who became famous on Little Round Top. LaFantasie gives the reader a great deal of Chamberlain, but he shows the reader the many other heroes as well. Before the recent focus on Chamberlain, Briagadier General Gouverneur Warren was regarded as the "Savior of Little Round Top", and LaFantasie gives him a great deal of sympathetic attention. Strong Vincent, Paddy O'Rourke, and Stephen Weed, all of whom repulsed assaults on Little Round Top at least as forceful as the assaults Chamberlain faced, are given the attention they deserve. Unlike Chamberlain, these heroes died on Little Round Top. LaFantasie also gives the reader a thorough, human portrait of Chamberlain's assailant, Colonel William Oates who led his Alabama troops in assaults against the far left of the Union line. LaFantasie also includes a great deal of broad meditiation on the meaning of the battle. He has long sections discussing the nature of freedom and liberty, as they were understood by North and South. He also has a long chapter on suffering and on human death, resulting from the struggle over the small hill. LaFantasie argues that Americans we compelled to change their understanding of death when faced with the carnage of the Civil War. LaFantasie also emphasizes the heroism of the soldiers in the fight for Little Round Top and finds that their actions outweigh those of their famous commanders. He concludes that the soldiers on both sides, who charged and defended the hill with valor and with virtually superhuman endurance, were the true heroes of the battle. LaFantasie does not overemphasize the role of Little Round Top and the eventual outcome at the battle of Gettysburg, but neither does he minimize it, as do some recent write

DEATH at DUSK on a GLOOMY SLOPE

The author, Glenn L. LaFantasie, in the PREFACE notes "In the end, the Union triumph on Little Round Top set the stage for the battle that was to be fought on the following day, July 3, because Federal possession of the hill meant that General Robert E. Lee's options for further attacks against the defensive line of the Army of the Potomac would be by necessity severely limited." Unlike many works on the fight for Little Round Top, the text does not overemphasize the strategy differences between Lee and Longstreet, but rather gives a clear account of one of the bloodiest five hours of combat during the Civil War. As to the question why Gettysburg; the text notes that as Lee saw things, he had two choices in the late spring of 1863: either retire on Richmond and stand a siege which ultimately he could not win or carry the war into Pennsylvania with a chance for victory. The book notes several critical flaws in the planned attack of July 2nd: fatally flawed Confederate reconnaissance of the Union left leading Lee to assume that no Federals occupied the ground to be attacked; and patchwork planning by Lee with the attendant bickering between Lee and Longstreet. A succinct account is given of the fighting leading up to the battle for Little Round Top. Union errors were made as well as Confederate mistakes. Most amazing was Union General Daniel Sickles unauthorized move to the Peach Orchard thereby creating a gap in the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. The result could have been disastrous had not Confederate General Longstreet approached the Peach Orchard. The author writes "So by pure luck, and through the fortitude of the troops in blue would give their blood to hold back Longstreet's onslaught that afternoon, Sickles could later claim to be the hero of the day, the savior of the Union." For this Sickles was later awarded the Medal of Honor which many Union Generals condemned as Sickles' action was deemed insubordinate, irresponsible, and murderous in its effect. The text provides a compact account of the fighting preceding Little Round Top in an area later referred to as "The Valley of Death." LaFantasie states "Technical improvements in weapons ....had far surpassed tactics, making this Civil War a modern war, and a particularly bloody and deadly one..." At twilight, over a five hour period, numerous assaults were made to dislodge the Federals from the summit of Little Round Top. Union Captain Judson later described the combat "It was a death grapple in which assailant and assailed seemed resolved to win or fall in the struggle. The enemy [Confederates] had everything to gain if they carried the position; everything to lose if they failed." The author gives an excellent account of this deadly combat that finally ended at deep dusk when Colonel Chamberlain and the 20th Maine's bayonet charge forced the Confederates off the hill. The casualties for both sides was staggering; the Confederates suffered 35 percent casualties in the fight while the p

Puts a Different Perspective on this Crucial Fight

This book puts a different perspective on this crucial fight in the Gettysburg battle. For example, the traditional view is that the 20th Maine and more specifically, Colonel Chamberlain were the sole winners of this battle. However, as this book highlights, there were many more individuals who performed a crucial role in this fight, many of whom died due tto their roles. Like Strong Vincent, who placed the 20th Maine because he led that brigade, and whose leadership at crucial moments assured that the battle on the other side was won, and who also died because of his wounds in this fight. Like Paddy O'Rourke, whose 146th Pennsylvania came to rescue of a regiment in Vincent's brigade at the right time to stop a Confederate charge, and who also died in this fight. Like General Weed, who led the brigade which contained the 146th Pennsylvania, who also died in this fight. Like Lieutenant Hazlett whose battery was crucial to the fight and who also died next to General Weed. And, like General Crawford, who led the charge of his Pennsylvania Reserves at the end of the battle to clear the ground so that further sniping wouldn't kill Union officers. They are all there, and put together in a very readable story. This is why I highly recommend this book.

Twilight is simply excellent

Books on the Civil War are endless in number, and because they are of varying quality, one can read several in a row without satisfaction. Civil War authors who write about battles generally fall into a formula that becomes readily predictable. They end up producing what the specialists call "battle books" that contain template accounts of Union and Confederate generals and their decisions, field commanders and their more instantaneous decisions, and how the men who fought the battle reacted to the combat. Twilight at Little Round Top departs from this dry formula, and thankfully so. It does treat all the expected elements -- generals and soldiers, and how the fighting took place -- but it is less a "battle book" than a profound study in warfare . . . and a commentary on the futility of war. Author Glenn LaFantasie brings the story of Little Round Top to life like no other Civil War writer I know by humanizing the participants and by telling the story with high drama and great sensitivity. He has chosen to write in detail about four soldiers, two Confederates and two Federals, to probe more deeply into the human elements of what took place on Little Round Top and how the combat there affected those who fought for the hill and those who fell in the struggle. But he lets the story go beyond these individuals - his main "characters" (although this is a solid work of nonfiction) - to cover the entire epic of Little Round Top and ts important place in the three days' battle of Gettysburg. Joshua Chamberlain and his heroic 20th Maine make up a good part of the story, but LaFantasie does not dwell on Chamberlain's feats or over-inflate the 20th Maine's role in the battle. Other heroes, North and South, emerge in LaFantasie's narrative, which is a refreshing approach after all that has been stated - and overstated - about Chamberlain and his saving the day on July 2, 1863. LaFantasie succeeds remarkably in making an often-told story sound new and fresh. This book is simply one of the best Civil War books I have ever read. My feeling is that it will become a classic in the literature of the Civil War and Gettysburg. Twilight at Little Round Top will eventually take a place next to Bruce Catton's A Stillness at Appomattox, James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, and Shelby Foote's three-volume history.

Time Travel

LaFantasie has a gift: the ability to transport the reader back in time. The Civil War is no longer an historical event almost a century and a half ago -- it is NOW. I watched the battle at Little Round Top unfold, smelled the acrid stench of war, heard the thunder of the firing, agonized with the screaming and moaning wounded and, finally, viewed the carnage in the aftermath. The stage was set through LaFantasie's meticulous research. I enjoyed meeting the principal characters and getting to know what made them tick as they readied for battle. Interspersed was commentary from soldiers' letters and diaries that further enhanced the "you are here" aspect of the book. Very importantly, you will not be left wondering what became of the people you came to know. I love a book with cinematic qualities and LaFantasie has given us that. With a restrained economy of words he supplies graphic imagery that left this reader, months later, *seeing* the battle at Little Round Top. This is a must read, not only for Civil War and history buffs but for all Americans.