Thread by @pptsapper

Ok, overlooking that the author read one book and then decided that he now understands all historiography about Gettysburg, let's talk about why this title and this piece are incredibly garbage takes

Thanks to @DavidLarter for getting me pissed off of a Saturday morning

https://twitter.com/DavidLarter/status/1319995690311888899

First - that title - the Maine story at Gettysburg. My dude, the Maine story at Gettysburg is NOTHING but worthy of the reels. From Cpt Hall withdrawing his guns by recoil from McPherson's ridge to the 16th Maine's heroic charge as the I Corps rear guard on Day 1...

Where the 180 dudes literally hold off 5000 rebels for 20 minutes & then tear their colors to shreds before being overrun - or the 4th Maine in Devil's Den, retaking the NY guns with the bayonet - or the 17th Maine in the Wheatfield, which also runs out of ammunition...

...but charges with bayonets into the Wheatfield under their lawyer-commander & holds it until reinforcements can come up - to ex-sea captain Freeman McGilvary, who single-handedly organizes a thin line of artillery in the US center on day 2 which saves the whole line...

And then wrecks Pickett's Charge with 44 guns the next day.

So. Even ASIDE from the 20th, there's plenty of movie fodder available. But let's go back to LRT - which has been the subject of INTENSE historiography. Starting just after the war, really

You've got Col Oates of Alabama writing his own version of how he was made victim & was really the underdog & was attacking a fortified position (Vincent's BDE had no time to fortify) & that Big Round Top was really the target of the attack

Problem - the 2 Bama regts took BRT

The attack of McClaws' division got completely unhinged bc of the fire from the 2nd US Sharpshooters which caused the attack to splinter into two directions, leading the TX BDE into Devil's Den and against LRT along with most of the AL troops, with just 2 AL regts going up BRT

The Alabamans were pursuing the Sharpshooters (good luck), descended the slope, & ran into the 20th. Etc etc etc. Chamberlain will write his own version of events, and let's be honest, the man can WRITE. But both Oates and Chamberlain got details mixed up, left out, embellished.

Then you've got Holman Melcher in the 20th who claims that HE was the one who ordered the charge and the wheel. Ellis Spear in the 20th would comment that many, including Chamberlain, exaggerated their roles at LRT. These were all post-war battles fought via letters

REGARDLESS

The 20th did not abandon their position. They attacked. Something that is remarkable and worthy of the screen.

Now, panning out, you have GK Warren, Col Strong Vincent, Col Paddy O'Rourke & Steven Weed - all individuals who played major roles at LRT

Should they also get credit as well as Chamberlain and the 20th? You betcha. Especially since all the above named but Warren are going to die on LRT. Warren will fall out of favor with Grant a year later because Sheridan will, unfairly, blame Warren for a failed attack

This will leave Chamberlain as the only major LRT character left as a battlefield CDR by 1865. & here's the thing. He's good. He's very good. Most competent division-corps level commanders in the Civil War ended up being the West Pointers. Citizen-soldiers sorta peaked at brigade

Steven W Sears argues that only Chamberlain and Francis Barlow (NY attorney) will be the only two citizen-soldiers to demonstrate real skill & brilliance as division commanders. For their pains, they're worn down - Barlow to collapse by '65 bc of his always being a shock Division

Chamberlain will get horribly wounded in '64 - shouldn't even have lived, was put off to the side to die, only saved bc his brother brought the regt's surgeon to perform very risky surgery to save his life, def worthy of a movie - is back in action 4 months later. DOW in 1914

But JLC's amazing contribution is gonna come in 1880 where, as ex-governor, he single-handedly prevents an armed clash during a constitutional crisis in the Maine gubernatorial election, merely using his powers of persuasion & personality. He diffuses the whole situation...

...without bringing in military force, permitting the issue to get decided by the supreme court, ensuring that the democratic process would not be sullied. There's this incredible moment where there's a mob assembling outside the state house, threatening to drag JLC out

He walks down the steps in his old Army jacket. Says, if you want to get to the state house, you go thru me. Silence. Suddenly, one of the rioters hops up onto the steps of the state house, between JLC & the mob - "I fought with the old man & no one touches a hair on his head"

The whole mob disintegrates.

If that isn't worthy of the screen, I don't know what is.

The summary of this long tirade is that, yes, Virginia, history IS confusing, is often complex, but is ALWAYS more interesting & compelling that anything that shows up on screen.

ALSO didn't even get INTO the MASSIVE debate between the LRT theorists and the Cemetery Hill theorists - those that say that LRT was a strategic position & those that say it was irrelevant, that Lee's whole focus was Cemetery Hill

This is a very niche debate, I'm aware

I mean, regardless of what happens on LRT, you've got the whole damn VI Corps sitting just behind the Round Tops, ready to hold the left flank if the V Corps collapsed. And the V Corps was bruised, but not broken, with more units to throw into the fight all that day

And then there's the case of the 137th NY on the extreme RIGHT flank, on Culps Hill, also outnumbered, also running low on ammo, but also holding his position. Many point to this as a critical moment on the battlefield on July 2

And then there's the 1st Minnesota's sacrificial 80% losses charge on the evening of July 2 that checks a rebel brigade advancing on a gap in the line on Cemetery Ridge. Also a critical moment.

And of course, you've got the people who say Gettysburg was a sideshow compared to the fall of Vicksburg, so, really, the entire "did the 20th Maine save the Union at LRT" question is predicated on just so MANY different questions

Here's the thing tho. Vincent went to LRT with his BDE of his own volition. The charge of the 20th Maine was sua sponte - regardless of who ordered it, it happened from within. The results - over 300 rebel prisoners - were unmistakeable. All of THIS makes the 20th unique

This is why we find it a compelling story. This is why it's still fascinating.

And this is why the article is just so much rubbish that I shouldn't still be tweeting about, but I had to do something with all this knowledge amassed in HS at the expense of a social life

Also, Killer Angels is a rubbish book, yes

And "Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine" is an excellent one. Desjardins really did his research. Pullen's book on the 20th has some good primary sources. Alice Trulock's "In the Hands of Providence" is a good Chamberlain work

Diane Smith's "Fanny & Joshua" explores the Chamberlain's very tortured home lives, which is vital for understanding a lot of what happened before, during, and after the war and the dramatic impacts that the war had on the couple