Editing Battle of Gettysburg (section)

===Attacks on the Union left flank===
[[File:Gettysburg Battle Map Day2.png|thumb|A map of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863]]
As Longstreet's left division, under Major General Lafayette McLaws, advanced, they unexpectedly found Major General [[Daniel Sickles]]'s III Corps directly in their path. Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing ground better suited for artillery positions {{convert|1/2|mi|m|spell=in}} to the west—centered at the Sherfy farm's Peach Orchard—he violated orders and advanced his corps to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road, moving away from Cemetery Ridge. The new line ran from Devil's Den, northwest to the Peach Orchard, then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm. This created an untenable salient at the Peach Orchard; Brigadier General [[Andrew A. Humphreys]]'s division (in position along the Emmitsburg Road) and Major General [[David B. Birney]]'s division (to the south) were subject to attacks from two sides and were spread out over a longer front than their small corps could defend effectively.<ref>Pfanz, ''Second Day'', pp. 93–97; Eicher, pp. 523–524.</ref> The Confederate artillery was ordered to open fire at 3:00&nbsp;pm.<ref>Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America, p. 369</ref> After failing to attend a meeting at this time of Meade's corps commanders, Meade rode to Sickles's position and demanded an explanation of the situation. Knowing a Confederate attack was imminent and a retreat would be endangered, Meade refused Sickles' offer to withdraw.<ref>Eicher</ref>

Meade was forced to send 20,000 reinforcements:<ref>Harman, p. 59.</ref> the entire V Corps, Brigadier General [[John C. Caldwell]]'s division of the II Corps, most of the XII Corps, and portions of the newly arrived VI Corps. Hood's division moved more to the east than intended, losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg Road,<ref>Harman, p. 57.</ref> attacking Devil's Den and Little Round Top. McLaws, coming in on Hood's left, drove multiple attacks into the thinly stretched III Corps in the [[Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day#Wheatfield|Wheatfield]] and overwhelmed them in Sherfy's [[Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day#Peach Orchard|Peach Orchard]]. McLaws's attack eventually reached Plum Run Valley (the "Valley of Death") before being beaten back by the [[Pennsylvania Reserves]] division of the V Corps, moving down from Little Round Top. The III Corps was virtually destroyed as a combat unit in this battle, and [[Daniel Sickles's leg|Sickles's leg]] was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Caldwell's division was destroyed piecemeal in the Wheatfield. Anderson's division, coming from McLaws's left and starting forward around 6{{nbsp}}p.m., reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but could not hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the II Corps, including an almost suicidal bayonet charge by the [[1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry|1st Minnesota]] regiment against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Hancock to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.<ref>Sears, pp. 312–324; Eicher, pp. 530–535; Coddington, p. 423.</ref>

As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil's Den, Colonel [[Strong Vincent]] of V Corps had a precarious hold on Little Round Top, an important hill at the extreme left of the Union line. His brigade of four relatively small regiments was able to resist repeated assaults by Law's brigade of Hood's division. Meade's chief engineer, Brigadier General [[Gouverneur K. Warren]], had realized the importance of this position, and dispatched Vincent's brigade, an artillery battery, and the 140th New York to occupy Little Round Top mere minutes before Hood's troops arrived. The defense of Little Round Top with a bayonet charge by the [[20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment|20th Maine]], ordered by Colonel [[Joshua L. Chamberlain]] and possibly led down the slope by Lieutenant [[Holman S. Melcher]], was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Chamberlain into prominence after the war.<ref>Eicher, pp. 527–530; Clark, pp. 81–85.</ref><ref group="fn">{{Cite web |url=http://www.gdg.org/Research/People/Chamberlain/flash.html |title=Who saved Little Round Top? |access-date=February 21, 2016 |publisher=Camp Chase Gazette |last=Morgan |first=James |quote= Morgan addresses and rebuts certain conclusions made in ''With a Flash of His Sword: The Writings of Major Holman S. Melcher, 20th Maine Infantry.'' Edited by William B. Styple. The full text of Morgan's analysis of Styples's "point number 4" about who ordered and lead the charges is: "Number 4. Col. Chamberlain did not lead the charge. Lt. Holman Melcher was the first officer down the slope [according to Styples]. Though directly related to Mr. Styples argument, this is a very minor point and could even be called a quibble. Even granting Melcher the honor of being first down the slope (and such an interpretation is perfectly plausible), he did not "lead" the charge in a command sense, which is what the conclusion implies. Chamberlain probably was standing in his proper place behind the line when he yelled "Bayonets!," so if indeed "the word was enough" to get the men started, he could not have gone first as the entire line would have moved out ahead of him. But it does not matter. The questions, "who was first down the hill?" and "who led the charge?" are different questions which should not be posed as one....The question, therefore, remains: who saved Little Round Top? Given the available historical evidence, the answer likewise must remain: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231850/http://www.gdg.org/Research/People/Chamberlain/flash.html |url-status=live }}</ref>