Gettysburg

by Stephen W. Sears

Joshua Chamberlain also took a decision, one he (like William Oates) believed to be inevitable. His men around him were displaying empty cartridge boxes; his line, he thought, was thinned far beyond the point of holding off another charge. At the foot of the slope in front of him he saw the “hostile line now rallying in the low shrubbery for a new onset.” All Chamberlain could think to do now to meet his orders to hold the position “at all costs” was to launch a charge of his own, to surprise and break up the Rebels before they could form for another attack. Just then Lieutenant Holman Melcher, commanding Company F at the center of the line, came to Chamberlain with a plea to let him advance his company to rescue some wounded comrades trapped between the lines. “Yes, sir, in a moment!” said Chamberlain. “I am about to order a charge!” His order “Fix bayonets!” ran swiftly along the line. Lieutenant Melcher returned to his company and immediately led it forward, along with the regimental colors. With a shout the right half of the 20th Maine charged down the slope. The order to charge had not reached the left wing before the right started forward, but Captain Ellis Spear, commanding on the left, saw the colors advancing and quickly seized the moment. “The left took up the shout and moved forward,” Spear recalled; “. . . every man eager not to be left behind, the whole line flung itself down the slope through the fire and smoke upon the enemy.” The effect was stunning, as exp...