The Attacks Against Little Round Top

As I stand here on the newly refurbished Little Round Top, I can’t help but think of William Oates’s Alabamians mounting attacks against the south flank of the hill while the 4th and 5th Texas tried to sweep up the eastern face. Up they pushed, uphill, even though their commander had warned them not to. “Don’t attack uphill, me boys,” Robert E. Lee had warned them. “Don’t attack uphill.”

But they didn’t listen to him.

Lee was the commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia, but his men refused to obey. They adored him like a beloved father, yet they refused to obey. To do so was audacious—insubordinate, really—but they could not help themselves.

At the north end of the field, against Culp’s Hill, Confederates likewise attacked uphill, ignoring their commander’s admonition. ’Twas the same at East Cemetery Hill. Up they attacked, and down they fell.

Some even say their disobedience and subsequent failure “represented such a big portion of the success of this country.”

Imagine my immense surprise to discover that Virginia gentleman Robert E. Lee talked like a pirate. A pirate! (In fact, one source went so far as to claim Lee said, “Don’t attack uphill, me hearties,” although no corroboration exists.) I know he was a Virginia gentleman because that’s how he’s portrayed on some Virginia license plates, in full military uniform.

But really, it’s little wonder the Confederate infantry ignored their commander, with so much before them—so much to lose and so much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the gold dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory their desperate gamble, the cast made two years previously. . . .

To sweep the Yankees off the hills, off this very hill I’m standing on, now beautifully restored as a natural and commemorative landscape, would have been too thrilling to imagine, the attempt too impossible to stop. Capturing the hill could have ended the war.

Unbelievable. So interesting and so vicious and so horrible. Some have even called it “so beautiful in so many different ways.” Maybe that’s what represented such a big portion of the success of this country.

I would, of course, be pilloried for suggesting such a thing. I would lose all credibility. Sadly, I’ll lose credibility for calling out such nonsense, too.

But at least the restored Little Round Top looks beautiful. The National Park Service did a wonderful job here. At least that much is true.