Who commanded the 20th Maine at Little Round Top?

Joshua Chamberlain commanded the 20th Maine at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. A former Bowdoin College professor who had become a Union officer, Chamberlain was serving as the regiment’s colonel when it was assigned the extreme left of the Army of the Potomac’s line.

The 20th Maine faced repeated attacks by the 15th Alabama, part of a Confederate effort to turn the Union flank. Chamberlain extended his thin line and ordered his men to refuse the flank, creating an angle that helped prevent the Confederates from moving around the regiment’s left side. After the Maine soldiers ran low on ammunition, he ordered a bayonet charge that drove back and captured many of the attackers.

Little Round Top was defended under Colonel Strong Vincent’s brigade, so Chamberlain was not the overall commander of the hill. That distinction explains a common mix-up: Vincent directed the brigade, while Chamberlain commanded the 20th Maine. Chamberlain’s leadership at the position later earned him the Medal of Honor and made the regiment’s defense one of Gettysburg’s best-known episodes.