July 2, 1863:"Longstreet’s lead division under Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood advanced and encountered stubborn resistance from Union infantry holding a strong defensive position around the craggy rock formation known as Devil’s Den, even as elements of the force skirted this action and moved toward the Round Tops.
Col. Vincent had just arrived on Little Round Top when Texans and Alabamians assaulted the rocky height.
The resulting fight is one of the war’s most celebrated engagements, concluding in dramatic fashion when the regiment on the far left of the entire Union line, the 20th Maine, having expended its supply of ammunition, executed a precise and unexpected bayonet charge, sweeping the hillside clear of its equally exhausted foes.
In the bloodiest fighting at Gettysburg, the combat spread to the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and as far north as Cemetery Ridge, where a near-suicidal bayonet charge by the 1st Minnesota, bought time for reinforcements to arrive and push back some of the last of Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill’s Confederates.
Of the 262 men who made the charge, only 47 escaped unscathed — a staggering 82 percent casualty rate. While the Southerners captured Devil’s Den and the Peach Orchard, the Federal line on Little Round Top and Cemetery Ridge held firm."
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