On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Confederates advanced from Warfield Ridge, one mile to the front of Little Round Top, to attack the Union position there across Plum Run and the Valley of Death. In the fierce struggle, many officers and men from both sides died. Confederate troops seized Devil's Den and Houck's Ridge, but Union forces held the strategic high ground at Little Round Top. Captain Decimus et Ultimus Barziza of the 4th Texas Volunteer Infantry recalled reaching the base of a range of hills in rough, woody, rocky country and then entering a rapid, continuous, and murderous musketry fight with his men at the base and their opponents on the sides and top of the hills.
