Question for your consideration

Monument to the 20th Maine at Little Round Top.

          The idea behind the topic of this issue of Speedyleeway is to spark debate. Your loyal blogger has an opinion on the question to be introduced and that opinion will be posted at a later date.

          There is no right and wrong here, only questions and opinions. Readers with opinions already formed are encouraged to render said opinions. Readers new to the question are urged to consider the background notes and then render your thoughts. Thoughts and opinions are welcome, so long as they are written politely. Political correctness is less important than plain, old fashioned good manners.

          Below is the background for the question, the question itself and a short list of pros and cons.

          Background: There is a small hill near the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania named Little Round Top. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia attacked along a broad front the defenses of the United States Army of the Potomac. The far left flank of the Union defense was on Little Round Top.

          The left-most Union regiment, the 20^th Maine, endured a determined effort by the Confederate 15^th Alabama regiment to crush the flank and take the high ground from the Union Army. To be sure, other Confederate regiments attacked other Union regiments at other locations on Little Round Top and Confederate regiments from Texas and Alabama actually succeeded in driving off the Union defenders in front of it. The timely arrival of reinforcements saved the day for the Union.

          For the purposes of this debate, all that matters is the fighting between the Maine regiment, commanded by Joshua L. Chamberlain, and the Alabamians led by William C. Oates.

          More complete information on the struggle is available in numerous books or websites, but we can sum the action up by saying the Confederates pressed the Maine defenders hard and failed to move Chamberlain’s men off the ground they defended.

          Chamberlain went on to make a career out of being the man who led the defense of the left flank at Gettysburg and eventually became the governor of Maine. Oates, a lawyer before the war, returned to the legal profession when the war ended but later went into politics and was elected the governor of Alabama.

          There is a memorial to the Maine regiment where those men so fiercely held their ground. While serving as Alabama’s governor, Oates wrote Governor Chamberlain of Maine to learn whether Chamberlain would fight against Oates’ desire to place a monument to his Alabama regiment on Little Round Top. Chamberlain did not oppose the idea until the old warriors got to discussing the location of the proposed Alabama memorial.

          Oates wanted to place the monument on the spot where, Oates said, his brother was killed. Oates described the desired spot to Chamberlain. Chamberlain was adamant that the Confederates did NOT penetrate the Union lines that far. The politicians agreed, the old soldiers did not. No monument to the 15^th Alabama was ever erected on Little Round Top.

          Roughly 150 years later, your loyal blogger found two notes next to each other in the 20^th Maine area of Little Round Top. They are pictured here and that brings us to the question.

Marker for position of left flank of the 20th Maine July 2, 1863.

          Question: Should there be a memorial of some sort to the 15^th Alabama somewhere on or near Little Round Top?

Messages in favor of 15th Alabama monument on Little Round Top.

          Pro: The 20^th Maine area is among the most visited locations of all the Civil War battlefield parks. Adding a marker for the 15^th Alabama would enable better understanding for the fighting that was done there. Even Chamberlain was not against the idea, he was in disagreement with Oates over the location where Oates wanted the proposed marker to go. The politics of history should not determine the answer to this question.

          Con: It is too late now to do so because little would be served by putting the money or time into the effort. There are very few positions reached markers at Gettysburg for Confederate units, though there are a few. We do not know today where Oates wanted to locate the memorial to his regiment. Today we find the Confederate cause (the continuation of slavery) repellant, with good reason, and a monument to a Confederate unit would be the same as blessing the Confederate cause.

         

          Blogger’s answer: Your loyal blogger feels a position-reached marker or at least a plaque representing the pathway the 15^th Alabama followed should have been erected decades ago, if for no other reason than to more clearly detail the history of the location. There are left and right flank markers for the Union regiments that indicate where the defenders were on Little Round Top but there are no indications of where each attacking Confederate regiment went up against those defenders.

          Given the popularity Little Round Top has among Gettysburg visitors (new and old), you would have expected that there would be more attention to detail about where each Confed regiment was. Look at it this way: Those Union regiments were fighting somebody. Why not delineate the attacking force?

          Having said that, it is certainly easy to spend someone else’s money. A marker for the 15^th Alabama would cost money. The location would have to be determined, the type of marker/monument/statue would have to be decided and someone would have to pay to have the thing created, moved and erected. For this observer, the same thing would have to be done for the 48^th Alabama, 4^th Texas, 5^th Texas, 4^th Alabama and 47^th Alabama because those regiments also attacked Little Round Top on July 2, 1863.

Right flank marker for the 16th Michigan on LRT.

The 48^th Alabama and 4^th Texas succeeded in dislodging the 16^th Michigan from the Union right on Little Round Top. Only the timely arrival of the 140^th New York saved the Union defenders from defeat. Certainly a position reached marker for those regiments would be in order, similar to the North Carolina marker pictured here near the wall on Cemetery Ridge.

However … it is too late now for the work to be done. The history of the location would be richly served, but historic accuracy has given way to political correctness in American society. The uproar over placing such markers would be damaging to the National Parks Service and this blogger cares too much about the good work the NPS does to risk the backlash that would certainly come.

With regret, the opinion here is that it will never happen.