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JULY 2, LATE AFTERNOON—LONGSTREET ATTACKS
At 4:30 P.M., after an artillery duel that was particularly hard on
the infantry near the Peach Orchard, Hood rode to the front of the Texas
Brigade, stood in his stirrups, and shouted, "Fix bayonets, my brave
Texans; forward and take those heights." Hood's division pushed off, and
soon afterward Hood fell with a serious wound. Instead of wheeling left
along the road. Hood's division had to move straight toward "those
heights" to avoid leaving Federal troops near Devil's Den and, perhaps,
on the Round Tops in its rear. As the regiments on his right pursued
Federal skirmishers over Round Top, Hood's center struck Sickles's heft
at Devil's Den. The hot fighting began there and spread left into Rose's
Woods in front of the Wheatfield. In the meantime, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur
K. Warren, Meade's chief engineer, had ridden to Little Round Top and
discovered that it was undefended and could be seized by Hood. He sent
for troops to man the hill, and Sykes made one of his Fifth Corps
brigades available for the task.
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A PERIOD SKETCH DEPICTING GENERAL G. K. WARREN AT THE SIGNAL
STATION ON LITTLE ROUND TOP (BL)
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