Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode number 356 of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

As you guys saw recall, when we left off last time, Sickles salient at the peach orchard

had been shattered. And now the soldiers of four Confederate brigades led by barkstail,

willcocks, laying, and right pressed ahead toward a very thin union line on cemetery

ridge.

Farther south, Confederate troops from hoods and mclas divisions, having cleared the wheat

field, were now gathering strength for a push toward the northern slopes of little

round top.

For George Meade and the army of the Potomac, these were some desperate moments indeed.

But Meade's earlier prompt efforts to address the crisis caused by Sickles unauthorized and

reckless advance were about to bear fruit, and it wouldn't be long before the on-rushing

Confederate tide ebbed and receded.

As y'all already know, on the far federal left at the southern end of the union line, two

fifth-corb brigades under Vincent and Weed had secured little round top while four others

raced into the wheat field.

Although those federals, along with men from Caldwell's Second Court Division, suffered

heavy losses in the bloody wheat field, the fierce contest for control of that spot severely

sapped the strength of the attacking Confederates.

...