Little Round Top, the key to the Federal left at Gettysburg, which they
all but lost on the second day--was the scene of hand-to-hand fighting
rarely equaled since long-range weapons were invented. Twice the
Confederates in fierce conflict fought their way near to this summit, but
were repulsed. Had they gained it, they could have planted artillery which
would have enfiladed the left of Meade's line, and Gettysburg might have
been turned into an overwhelming defeat. Beginning at the right, the
Federal line stretched in the form of a fish-hook, with the barb resting
on Culp's Hill, the center at the bend in the hook on Cemetery Hill, and
the left (consisting of General Sickles' Third Corps) forming the shank to
the southward as far as Round Top. On his own responsibility Sickles had
advanced a portion of his line, leaving Little Round Top unprotected. Upon
this advanced line of Sickles, at the Peach Orchard on the Emmitsburg
road, the Confederates fell in an effort to turn what they supposed to be
Meade's left flank. Only the promptness of General Warren, who discovered
the gap and remedied it in time, saved the key.
[Illustration: THE HEIGHT OF THE BATTLE-TIDE