Here's Zoe and I on Little Round Top. Several Union brigades defended this hill on the second day of fighting, and one can read story after story about the heroic things that were done by the Union soldiers to defend their position. We spent a couple hours walking around on the hill, not because it was so large that such a huge amount of time was required to take it all in, rather, because there was so much to see and contemplate up there.
Can you imagine the courage it would take to be part of the Alabama or Texas brigades that were ordered to run up this hill while being shot at from above? Or to be one of the soldiers from the 20th Maine that ran out of ammunition after the first 2 assaults from below, and drew their bayonetts as they ran down the hill to encounter the oncoming Confederate soldiers? Or to be an artillery guy trying to lug your cannon up the hill, all the while being shot at by snipers, only to discover at the top of the hill that you couldn't lower the cannon's turret far enough to effectively fire at the oncoming enemy?
The view from the top of Little Round Top is the same view of the battlefield that was seen by hundreds of soldiers. Even after seeing the movies, reading the books and visiting the memorials, I can't picture what actually happened on and around this hill. I'm not sure whether to call these grounds sacred or not...people died for my freedom, and I know that this fact adds a few tallies under the "sacred" column, but I can't get over the fact that no matter how ticked off people can get, there's not really a reason to get the guns out. Yet still, on the other hand, everyone that has visited this site can feel the reverence of the locale, thus rendering the area one of holiness, says I.
Here's Zoe and I on Little Round Top. Several Union brigades defended this hill on the second day of fighting, and one can read story after story about the heroic things that were done by the Union soldiers to defend their position. We spent a couple hours walking around on the hill, not because it was so large that such a huge amount of time was required to take it all in, rather, because there was so much to see and contemplate up there.
Can you imagine the courage it would take to be part of the Alabama or Texas brigades that were ordered to run up this hill while being shot at from above? Or to be one of the soldiers from the 20th Maine that ran out of ammunition after the first 2 assaults from below, and drew their bayonetts as they ran down the hill to encounter the oncoming Confederate soldiers? Or to be an artillery guy trying to lug your cannon up the hill, all the while being shot at by snipers, only to discover at the top of the hill that you couldn't lower the cannon's turret far enough to effectively fire at the oncoming enemy?
The view from the top of Little Round Top is the same view of the battlefield that was seen by hundreds of soldiers. Even after seeing the movies, reading the books and visiting the memorials, I can't picture what actually happened on and around this hill. I'm not sure whether to call these grounds sacred or not...people died for my freedom, and I know that this fact adds a few tallies under the "sacred" column, but I can't get over the fact that no matter how ticked off people can get, there's not really a reason to get the guns out. Yet still, on the other hand, everyone that has visited this site can feel the reverence of the locale, thus rendering the area one of holiness, says I.
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