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| View on little Round Top2 |
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| Daniel E. Sickles. |
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[68]
Brooke severely so. Firmly the Nationals held the line for some time against odds, assisted by the regulars, under General Ayres, on the left; but Caldwell was finally compelled to fall back, with a loss of nearly one-half his division.
Ayres's was enveloped by the foe, but cut his way out gallantly.
Then there was a renewed struggle for little Round Top, when, at about six o'clock, six regiments of the division of Pennsylvania Reserves, of the Fifth Corps, led by the gallant General Crawford,1 their commander, swept down the northwestern side of little Round Top with a tremendous shout, and drove the Confederates across the rocky intervale at its base and through the woods to the Emmettsburg road, taking three hundred of them prisoners.
In this charge the Confederate General Barksdale was killed.
Little Round Top was encircled by breastworks that evening, and twelve 30-pound Parrott guns were placed in battery on its summit, before morning.
when the line of Humphreys and Graham swung Round, the former, as we have observed, kept his right firmly on the Emmettsburg road.
So soon as Sickles's left was disposed of, the victors hastened to strike this remainder, when Hancock sent to its support two regiments from Gibbons's division (Fifteenth Massachusetts and Eighty-second New York), and advanced Willard's brigade of Hays's division to fill a wide gap. At that moment Hill ceased threatening, and advancing in heavy force from Seminary Ridge, fell upon Humphreys and quickly pushed.
Him back, with a loss of half his men and three guns.
In this onset Willard was killed, and Sickles had a leg so shattered that he lost it. Birney then took command of the corps.
the Confederates, elated by their successes, dashed like turbulent waves up to the base of the ridge occupied
1 see page 447, volume II.
2 this is a view of the crest of little Round Top, at the place of the battery, where General Weed and Lieutenant Hazlett were killed. In the distance is seen Zeigler's Grove, on Cemetery Hill, where Hancock's battery was placed; and near by, the village of Gettysburg and the plain over which the Confederates swept to their attacks.
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