Longstreet Attacks

Following the Confederate army's success on July 1, General Robert E. Lee planned to attack both ends of the Union line south of Gettysburg. The main effort, assigned to General James Longstreet, was intended to roll up the Federal left while General Richard Ewell launched a diversionary attack on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill to the north. Although Longstreet preferred a defensive battle, he obeyed orders and put his troops in motion at noon. Meanwhile, Union troops advanced to a new line stretching from Devil's Den to the Peach Orchard, leaving Big and Little Round Top unoccupied to the front. At 4:00 pm Longstreet's assault began, later called by him the best three hours' fighting ever done by any troops on any battlefield. From this location, General John B. Hood's 7,000-man battle line advanced; Hood had protested his orders because he preferred to sweep around the Round Tops rather than attack in front, but he was overruled and was injured in the first minutes of the attack, a serious loss to Confederate leadership during the fight.

Freedom Township, Pennsylvania · United States