Little Round Top at Gettysburg: A Reassessment of July 2, 1863

Little Round Top. Three words that resonate in American military history. It was there, at one of the most visited sites on the Gettysburg battlefield, that Confederates under Maj. Gen. John B. Hood attempted to turn the left flank of the Army of the Potomac. Only the supreme efforts of Col. Strong Vincent’s brigade and a handful of others, including Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren and Cols. Patrick O’Rorke and Joshua Chamberlain, saved the high ground and the Union army from potential disaster. Little Round Top at Gettysburg: A Reassessment of July 2, 1863, is the first comprehensive, in-depth study of this complex and bloody clash in two decades.Most visitors today are familiar with the fighting on Little Round Top through Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 novel The Killer Angels, which gained renewed popularity after the 1993 film Gettysburg. Both portrayals take liberties with the historical events, and many accounts by soldiers who fought there, as well as subsequent historians are rife with inconsistencies and, in some cases, rely on incomplete information. Joseph Michael Boslet’s years of studying primary sources—including battle reports, soldiers’ narratives, and regimental histories—confirm some events while challenging others. Boslet, a Vietnam combat veteran and dedicated Civil War scholar, meticulously reexamines the practical aspects of regimental tactics and their use of 19th-century combat methods. He has walked every yard of Little Round Top’s rocky hillside countless times. His unique perspective, shaped by his own combat experiences, offers unparalled insight.Accompanied by original maps, photographs, and detailed notes, Little Round Top at Gettysburg offers a practical history that readers can enjoy from an armchair or use on the battlefield to walk the ground fought over by soldiers and envision the battle as they experienced it. Read more