145 years ago today, my great-great grandfather, Corporal Richard B. “R.B.” Davis of the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry helped to defend the extreme left flank of the Union line at Little Round Top. It never ceases to amaze me that, to this day, I can walk down to the spot where the 155th was positioned on Little Round Top and put my hands on the rock wall they constructed during the evening of July 2, 1863.
Here’s how the defense of Little Round Top was dramatized in the movie Gettysburg — in this case, the story of the 20th Maine and Colonel Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels). Meanwhile, the 155th and my great-great grandfather were on the other side of the hill — the exposed, bare, boulder-strewn section (see photo below).
The 155th PA monument. Little Round Top, Gettysburg.
