Little Round Top | |||||||
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Part of the Gettysburg Campaign | |||||||
"View from the summit of Little Round Top at 7:30 P.M. July 3rd, 1863", painting by Edwin Forbes, showing 1st Lt. Charles E. Hazlett's 5th U.S. Artillery, Battery D in action. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States of America | Confederate States of America | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
2,996 troops | 4,864 troops | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—the companion to the adjacent, taller hill named Big Round Top. It was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left flank on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, during the American Civil War.
Little Round Top was successfully defended by a brigade under Colonel Strong Vincent, who was mortally wounded during the fighting and died five days later. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, fought its most famous engagement there, culminating in a dramatic downhill bayonet charge. The battle at Little Round Top subsequently became one of the most well-known actions at Gettysburg, and of the entire war.