Below are pictures of Little Round Top. On the morning of the second day, July 2, 1863, Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles felt that his men were exposed. In an earlier battle in Virginia, his forces had been exposed to fire from Confederate forces which had positioned themselves on higher ground, and he had suffered great losses. He was determined not to stay in a position when he saw that their was higher ground that was available to the enemy. He wanted to deprive the enemy of the higher ground. Without orders, against orders, he moved his men forward to what he thought was a superior position. As a result, he broke the continuous Union line which had been established along Cemetery Ridge by Meade. And he exposed his forces to an onslaught from Longstreet's forces all of the second day in places like the Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, Rose's Wood, and the Peach Orchard. While his forces took the brunt of the attack, they weren't the only forces to see action. There was fierce fighting in the north on Culp's Hill and in the south on Little Round Top.

   

When Meade found out that Sickles had moved his forces forward, he sent Brig. Gen. Gouverneur Warren to see what forces were defending the southern end of the Union line. Warren found that Little Round Top was undefended, being occupied only by a signal corps unit. Little Round Top was strategic, because if the Confederate forces had taken it they would have been able to position artillery on it and pound the whole Union line to the north forcing a general retreat and a huge defeat of the Union army. Forces were rushed to Little Round Top (including the 20th Maine who were a large part of the movie "Gettysburg") just as southern forces were about to arrive. The two pictures above are of the Warren monument. Warren became known as "The Saviour of Gettysburg." Sharp fighting occurred along the line on Little Round Top. Both sides began to run out of ammunition. Also, darkness began to fall, since the Confederate forces had gotten such a late start. The Union line held, and the Confederates lost the attempt to acquire the strategic position. However, because Lee thought that his forces had almost won the first and second day's battle, the third day's action was set up.      If you've watched the movie "Gettysburg", you will probably remember the scene after the battle on Little Round Top where the Chamberlain brothers were sitting on a rock looking over the battlefield. That scene was filmed on the rocks right next to the Warren statue. Our guide told us that they his the statue with some "trees", and you can see the hat of the statue at one point in the film.

The above panorama is a composite of three pictures. The panorama below is a composite of four pictures. They are views of the valley in front of the Little Round Top. I am standing between the Warren Monument and the area where the 20th Maine fought. If you look to the left where the "Y" in the road is, there is a clump of green trees closer to the camera. Just beyond it you can see some gray where the Devil's Den is. I can't really mark where each part of the valley is, but here goes. The road that goes through the valley from The Devil's Den is called Crawford Avenue. The road that comes into it is Warren Avenue. If you look at Warren Avenue, just before it meets Crawford Avenue you can see a tree and a little darkness beneath it. That is a stream called Plum Run that goes under Warren Avenue. The stream flows on this side of Crawford Avenue until near the end of Crawford Avenue to the right of the panorama. The Wheatfield is to the right of Devil's Den beyond Sedgwick Avenue and beyond the stream Plum Run. The rest of the battles in the valley are, unfortunately, out of the view to the right. To the right is an area called Plum Run because of the stream (though the stream runs through most of the valley). Beyond the battlefield of Plum Run is The Peach Orchard which is very close to the Emmitsburg Road.

To the left of the above panorama is a monument to the 12th and 44th New York Infantry Regiments. Below is a closer view.

Above is another monument. I didn't write down what it is. It might be the 83rd Pennsylvania monument.