Gettysburg's famed Little Round Top will be closed 12-18 months during project addressing erosion, parking, accessibility and more

Tree cutting this month at Little Round Top will kick off a larger rehabilitation project that will include a 12-18 month closure of the hill where Union forces fought off a furious Confederate assault, Gettysburg National Military Park announced Tuesday.

Park officials said they are addressing ongoing problems at the overcrowded site. They cited erosion, overwhelmed parking areas, poor accessibility and related safety hazards, and degraded vegetation.

Once rehabilitation efforts begin, all of Little Round Top will be closed for 12 to 18 months, the park said. Officials said Wednesday they were unable to provide details on the exact timing of the beginning of the closure, other than "later in Spring 22."

“This project will also enhance the visitor experience with improved interpretive signage, new accessible trail alignments, and gathering areas. These improvements will allow visitors to better immerse themselves into the historic landscape that is essential to understanding the three-day Battle of Gettysburg,” a news release said. 

A park page on the project says the aim is to “reestablish, preserve, and protect the features that make up this segment of the battlefield landscape.” 

Little Round Top seen from Plum Run Valley (Library of Congress)

Little Round Top and Sykes Avenue will be closed Feb. 9-11 and Feb. 14-16 for the cutting of up to 63 trees along both sides of the road. The park says the removal is necessary for the project.

The work is happening now so as not to interfere with the nesting and breeding of northern long-eared and Indiana bats that may roost in the area. “Both species of bat are on the federal endangered species list and the select tree cutting project must be completed before their anticipated arrival in early spring when nesting activities typically begin.”

Little Round Top is the location of some of the most famous fighting of the battle

Rising 164 feet above the Plum Run Valley to the west, the boulder-strewn hill became the anchor of the Union’s left flank and a focal point of Confederate attacks on the afternoon of July 2, 1863.  The 4^th,15^{th and 47th} Alabama regiments made a series of legendary assaults against the 20^th Maine, led by Col. Joshua Chamberlain (right).    

“The (Maine) regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat,” according to the American BattlefieldTrust. 

Maine's official state ballad honors the 20th Maine and the bad-ass color bearer who rallied them at Little Round Top

A song told from the point of a view of a color bearer who rallied a regiment that famously saved the Union’s left at Gettysburg has been designated the official state ballad of Maine.

The Portland folk band The Ghost of Paul Revere performed “Ballad of the 20^th Maine” on Friday during bill-signing ceremonies led by Gov. Janet Mills.

Sgt. Andrew J. Tozier of the 20^th’s Company I received the Medal of Honor in 1898, 35 years after the battle. His citation reads: “At the crisis of the engagement this soldier, a color bearer, stood alone in an advanced position, the regiment having been borne back, and defended his colors with musket and ammunition picked up at his feet.”

The song lyrics include this verse:

If we should die today, dream a dream of heaven 
Take your northern heart with you to the grave 
Be proud and true you are a union soldier 
Stand fast, ye are the boys of Maine

On July 2, 1863, the 15^th Alabama made its way to Little Round Top and made a series of legendary assaults against the 20^th Maine, led by Col. Joshua Chamberlain.

The family of Andrew J. Tozier; his son is second from right, top (Wikipedia)

Tozier, 25, was with the 2^nd Maine Infantry, and been wounded and made prisoner in 1862. He returned to service and eventually was transferred to the 20^th Maine.

The 2nd Maine was pressed into service with Chamberlain’s unit at Gettysburg. That’s because the unit had been disbanded and those who were not able to go home did not want to fly under another flag.

Chamberlain

According to the American Battlefield Trust: “Color sergeant was a dangerous but coveted position in Civil War regiments, generally manned by the bravest soldier in the unit. As the 20th Maine’s center began to break and give ground in the face of the Alabama regiments’ onslaught, Tozier stood firm, remaining upright as Southern bullets buzzed and snapped in the air around him. Tozier’s personal gallantry in defending the 20th Maine’s colors became the regimental rallying point for Companies D, E and F to retake the center. Were it not for Tozier’s heroic stand, the 20th Maine would likely have been beaten at that decisive point in the battle.”

The Trust article said a desperate bayonet charge that followed blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and saved the Army of the Potomac, which went on to win the battle and the war.

The Ghost of Paul Revere performed its song during the ceremony. The lyrics include these verses:

Well, our western flank was missing 
As the Confederates pushed on 
And we fought them tooth and nail 
Our ammunition all but gone 
Alone I stood with colors 
Flying proud and true 
For to let my northern brothers know 
the battle was not through 

Then appeared our lion roaring bayonets 
Charging down the mountain with what soldiers we had left 
We were steadfast as Katahdin, hard as winters rain 
Take that rebel yell with you to hell 
We are the 20th Maine 

The ballad was written by band member Griffin Sherry because he’s a history buff and has interest in the 20^th Maine, according to the Press-Telegram newspaper. Tozier died in 1910 at age 72.

View from Little Round Top, with statue of Brig. Gen. Gouverneur Warren (NPS)

Maine already has a separate state song and state march. Apparently, not all legislators favored the selection, according to reports, with two Republican lawmakers saying the song may be unfair to the Confederate cause.

“Music transcends the bounds of time, distance, language, and culture to bring people together,” Mills said of the state ballad. “The ‘Ballad of the 20th Maine’ does just that by reminding us of our proud heritage, the role our great state has played in the history of our nation, and to be forever grateful to those who served and saved our country.”

This post has been updated to correct errors on Tozier's birthplace and the family photo.

Prescribed burn at Gettysburg to cover area of Confederate advance on Little Round Top, doomed Federal cavalry charge

Phase 1 of the prescribed fire was this one in April 2018 (NPS)

A field crossed by the 15^th Alabama as it made its way toward Little Round Top, where it made a series of legendary assaults against the 20^th Maine, will be part of an upcoming 117-acre prescribed burn at Gettysburg National Military Park.

The fire, on portions of land between Slyder Lane and South Confederate Avenue, will occur some time this month, on a day that meets proper weather conditions.

Prescribed fires are among the tools that national parks at Civil War sites use “to maintain the conditions of the battlefield as experienced by the soldiers who fought here,” and to control invasive species, reduce fire hazards and maintain wildlife habitat.

Park historian John Heiser told the Picket that the land was in agriculture use in 1863 and open, with few trees or bushes. “We know there were burials on the Slyder Farm, most being from Benning's and Law's Brigades, around or near the buildings and removed between 1871-1872.”

Area of planned prescribed fire (NPS)

Heiser gave a description of the historical significance of the burn area in an email:

“The bulk of the area is the historic John Slyder farm and the adjoining farm of Michael Bushman. Both were first occupied by the 2nd US Sharp Shooters, deployed to cover the front of the Union Third Corps, which had moved out from Cemetery Ridge around 1 p.m. of July 2, 1863. The Sharp Shooters contested the advance of both Law's and Robertson's brigades from Hood's Division on July 2 before withdrawing to Big Round Top and beyond. The burn area was subsequently crossed over by Law's Alabama Brigade, including the 15th and 4th Alabama Regiments, that would both advance up the side of Big Round Top before descending into the saddle between it and Little Round Top to do battle with Vincent's Federal brigade.”

View from Little Round Top shows burn area in far left distance (NPS)

The 4^th, 15^th and 47^th Alabama are remembered for their attacks against the 20^th Maine, led by Col. Joshua Chamberlain, on the end of the Federal army’s left flank.

“The (Maine) regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat,” according to the American Battlefield Trust.

Slyder farm barn and building (NPS)

Heiser said the burn area also figured on the afternoon of next day, July 3, as the scene of Union Brig. Gen. Elon Farnsworth’s charge, which came after Pickett’s Charge. Farnsworth was ordered under protest to make a controversial attack against a large contingent of Confederate infantry.

“Leading the 1st West Virginia Cavalry and 1st Vermont Cavalry of his brigade, Farnsworth charged into the pasture south of the Bushman farm buildings. The 1st WV was repulsed by the 9th Georgia Infantry positioned on the southern extension of Seminary Ridge, but the Vermonters rode on, one battalion racing north into the rear of Hood's line and the other battalion under Farnsworth veered east and north where they ran into Robertson's Texans posted along the western base of Big Round Top.

Gen. Farnsworth

“The two battalions of the regiment met and reformed along the Slyder lane (the northern edge of the burn area) and from there headed south to return to the relative safety of Bushman's Hill, from where the charge had begun, but Farnworth's group ran into a hornet's nest on the edge of Big Round Top and the troopers scattered. Farnsworth was killed on the west side of the hill where the monument to the 1st Vermont Cavalry stands today. The refugees from his column made their way back across this field and rejoined the other battalion in the woods south of Bushman's Hill, where they rallied. “

On the day of the prescribed fire, South Confederate Avenue will be closed, said park spokesman Jason Martz. “A combination of lawn sprinklers, hoses, mowed lines, and fire engines will be used to create a buffer and fire break to protect monuments and other cultural resources in the burn area.”

Martz said crews had hoped to burn the entire 215-acre site in April 2018, but were only able to do the northern half before it persistently rained. "This year's planned prescribed fire is a continuation of last year's efforts and will complete what we started, with Mother Nature's help, of course."