Devils Den, Little Round Top, and the Wheatfield | Animated Battle Map

[@thenebbish7709]

I am in York, 30 miles to the west. While I do enjoy the videos of the Battlefield Trust, an animated video like this makes it so much easier to see and understand all the movements.

[@carywest9256]

I always thought York was East of Gettysburg, and Chambersburg was west. Have they moved one or the other?

[@thenebbish7709]

Wow did I screw that up

[@ericbentz4597]

It's amazing how quickly this fight devolved into chaos. Thank you for making it more understandable.

[@wmschooley1234]

Dr. Wilder: Excellent. Simply an excellent presentation; it’s clear, concise, precise and accurate. Respectfully, W.S.

[@travisbayles870]

I had two Confederate ancestors who fought at the Devils Den Thanks for such a fine program

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

Thank you very much for watching.

[@travisbayles870]

@@HistoryGoneWilder yw

[@2gpowell]

Enjoyed the presentation. Col. Oates and little round top always intrigued me no matter how many times I read, watch or listen about it.

[@aaronfleming9426]

I was a Chickamauga a few weeks ago and was amazed to find that Col. Oates and the 15th Alabama participated in the final desperate attacks on the far right of the Union army on Horseshoe Ridge. A strange symmetry for those Alabama boys who fought in the two most horrific battles of the war.

[@carolbell8008]

What a fantastic battle! And beautifully narrated, thank you kind Sir.

[@crawwwfishh3284]

You should have the confederate flag on your shirts.

[@davidbowman4259]

I love these videos because they show what regiments fought where and against whom. Epic struggles!

[@TheKilo0123]

Always spellbound by your description and graphics of the battle... Ty!

[@zach7193]

Well, this was something. Great. The movie Gettysburg focuses on the 2nd day of the battle with Chamberlain's 20th Maine. Devil's Den is mentioned and seen. The Wheatfield, no. Civil War Combat series does show what happened on the 2nd day of the battle of Gettysburg. Mostly, the Wheatfield, Little Round Top, and Culp's Hill. Happy 4th of July.

[@g.sergiusfidenas6650]

Of the Union commanders seen here besides Weed and Vincent these actions also cost the lives of Gen. Ward, Col. Edward Cross and Col. Patrick O'Rorke of the 140th New York. Cross was a particularly colorful character who went to battle wearing a red bandana to lead his men but at Gettysburg he wore a black one as he told his commander, Gen. Hancock, he had foreseen his own death thus the color of mourning was more appropriate.

[@raylast3873]

Videos like this are extremely helpful in really understanding just what was going on in a battle and what all the moving parts were. For me, it very much reinforces the futility of Lee‘s entire plan. Rolling up Meade‘s flank as he wants to would require troops he doesn‘t have. The Union firmly has the advantage here and Hancock and Meade always have reinforcements on hand to oppose any break-in. An extra brigade in the case of LRT, an entire division for Devil‘s Den or the Wheatfield. The Confederates that managed to drive off a section of the Union line are always faced with reinforcing troops that ultimately outnumber them. This makes the whole idea of destroying Meade‘s line a nonstarter. A breakthrough force faced with equal defending forces or major reinforcements has basically no chance of rolling up a battle line. Just attacking and hoping that your troops will be better is not a plan that is usually going to work, and it certainly won‘t work against a disciplined and well-positioned defending army.

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

Please check out my other animated battle maps.

[@jmsdeco]

Outstanding video !!!!!!

[@nathanappleby5342]

I never knew there was fighting on Little Round Top later in the evening on the second day and other details I didn't know before. This video was well done!

[@dingodawg9279]

Thanks so much for making these videos. It really helps me to understand better, and to learn a lot more about this era of war. Great job!

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

Thank you very much for watching. I'm so glad I could help clarify the battle.

[@missmissy2490]

Thank you so much!

[@pczTV]

I visited the battlefield last year and did a lot of research beforehand… but this really helps clear up the chaos!

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

I'm so happy to hear that. That was my intention with this type of video. Please check out my other animated battle maps and other videos.

[@avnrulz8587]

My oldest son and his wife visited Gettysburg this weekend, all the way from Sacramento.

[@aaronfleming9426]

Outstanding work! Thank you so much, I really do look forward to each new release. In my opinion, the map at :58 illustrates how terribly foolish Sickles' move was. I'd be curious to hear you comment on Sickles in general, and this move at Gettysburg in particular.

[@lthom5158]

Excellent video!

[@JeffreyLang-j5i]

Thanks for your 'moving regiment diagrams'!! EXTREMELY HELPFUL!!

[@michaelmay5120]

Thanks for posting this. I was there just two weeks ago. This is an amazingly compact area and mostly thickly wooded. I can't image trying to keep 100 men together, much less several thousand. The Rose Farm and Little Round Top were closed off which was too bad. I'm under the impression that there are still a great number of unmarked graves in the Rose Woods. Your video is really well done, thanks again!

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

Thank you so much! Please check out my other videos and consider subscribing if you have not done so already. I also appreciate shares to help the channel grow.

[@mindbomb9341]

Darnit! Now why didn't I have a video like this when I visited these locations in 1990????? Bummer!

[@PaulAshley]

I recently learned that my great great grandfather was in the 59th Georgia and his older brother was in the 5th Texas. Watching this I can see that they were very near each other on this day of fighting. Both survived their four years of war and were paroled at Appomattox.

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

I'm happy that the animated battle map helped you understand your ancestors' roles in the engagement.

[@jj25397]

My GGGrandfather was under Anderson in the 59th Georgia at Gettysburg. He was hit in the leg and, as a result, ended up with a leg that was several inches shorter than the other after the unit surgeon was done. He was taken prisoner a day or so later. He survived the war and is buried in Lanier County GA later in the 1920s. Had he taken a round in something more vital, I wouldn't be here to share this. RIP John Wheeler, 59th GA.

[@PaulAshley]

My second great grandfather was in the 59th GA and his older brother was in the 5th Texas! Both survived and were paroled at Appomattox. I have ancestors who fought on both sides.

[@danielhandley6460]

I love the content you guys make please make more

[@mindbomb9341]

I guess to me, the only thing missing here is an old fashioned styled watch in the top right hand corner of the map showing the time of day as the video moves along or something like that. And maybe a scale of feet or yards (or meters).

[@bradentoncane8830]

Can you do a video depicting the 47th and 48th Alabama? My great great great grandfather Thomas Patrick Henderson served in the 48th Alabama . All I can find is the regiment on a map. I’d like to know more what they actually did. I believe they fought in devils Den and little round top. Do you have any info on them other than what’s in this video?

[@mikesuggs1642]

Not a lot of attention has been placed on the Devils den, that was a Hell of fight. The Texans cut though everything that was in front of them.

[@BobMerold]

Excellent so far as it goes but omits some important historic elements of Longstreet's assault: Barksdale + Anderson's troops, the 9th Mass battery, the historic 1 Minnesota charge and Rans Wright brigade sitting by themselves on C. Ridge. Wright's report will influence R E Lee's decision to attack the Union center the next day. Don't want to diminish what you've done, let's finish the story!

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

I have covered those in other videos.

[@BobMerold]

@@HistoryGoneWilder would you be kind enough to add the link if convenient (yes i will search as well). I will respectfully suggest that it may have been helpful in the piece itself to note there is more in a subsequent video, but it is a minor 'nit' and not to detract from the great work you did here.

[@aaronfleming9426]

@@BobMerold I believe this is what you're looking for: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYOZfmNjbbRskMk

[@jaywinters2483]

These animations make it the best. Hate it when guides rattle off numbers & titles.

[@andhelm7097]

Thank you for covering the struggle at little round top and devils den.any idea what the distance at which the shooting was done before hand to hand fight broke out ?

[@johnnynielsen3006]

I wonder if the regimental line bars could be drawn in darker colors then fading into lighter colors as their strength diminish and dissolve when they are broken/dissolved/destroyed? Commanding officer names should be replaced as they fall, wounded or killed. I always thought that the defensive line at Gettysburg was shaped like a fishing hook, and not broken up into several pieces all over the place in a giant slugfest. The confederates lack of taking the high ground cost them the battle on this flank. But taking a fortified hill would be costly. It would probably take at least four regiments to defeat one regiment on the top.

[@nimitz1739]

The ending of this threw me off. I was always under the assumption that the Confederates held devils den at the end of the second day, that’s how they were able to build, works like at the sharp shooters nest. I always thought rebel sharpshooters were in the boulders, shooting up at Little round top all of the third day

[@dashsocur]

Interesting, I remember reading the official history of the 155th PA (part of Weed's brigade) and came across a couple interesting anecdotes that I've never heard anywhere else. Allegedly the 155th was the only regiment in Weed's brigade that still had smooth-bore muskets rather than rifled. As a result, when the brigade initially opened fire on the attacking Confederates, the 155th held their fire and the attackers mistook the lack of smoke in that area for a gap in the line. They focused a charge there whereupon they received a full volley of buck & ball at point blank range which (unsurprisingly) broke the attack. I'm not sure when that would have happened as there wasn't any part of the battle animation that seemed to show an appropriate attack on Weed. The second anecdote was concerning Day 3. Allegedly, the 2nd US Sharpshooters teamed up with some of the men of Weed's brigade to engage in counter-sniping with Confederates in the Devil's Den. The men of the 155th and others would put their hats on sticks and poke them over the tops of the fortifications that they had dug overnight. Any Confederate soldier that tried their luck was quickly targeted by the 2nd US. I love the stories that book contains as it's a much more human view of the war than we normally get. There's a particularly poignant part later in the war where they talk about how two opposing soldiers had killed each other in a confused melee in the woods. The book then gives the account of the reaction of Union soldier's parents when they got the news and laments that no identification could be found on the Confederate soldier so no notification could ever be given. Even decades after the war, it was obvious that the lack of closure for that one Confederate family bothered the Pennsylvania veterans. (The book is "Under the Maltese cross, Antietam to Appomattox" if anyone is curious.)

[@arkansasboy2177]

You should do a video of the battle of Chancellorsville

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

I will but this May I will start the Overland Campaign. Chickamauga this September, and Longstreets east tennessee Campaign in November and December.

[@arkansasboy2177]

@@HistoryGoneWilder i thought you already did chickamauga?

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

@@arkansasboy2177 I only covered the first day. I'll cover the second day and edit together.

[@arkansasboy2177]

@@HistoryGoneWilder oh

[@arkansasboy2177]

@@HistoryGoneWilder well I look forward to watching more of your videos

[@the1magageneral323]

Thoughts on the people who claim that the little round tops were a myth?

[@the1magageneral323]

Wasn't General Hood wounded around Rose Woods or Devils Den?

[@carywest9256]

Hood was wounded South of Devil's Den a couple of hundred yards. There's a marker showing the area where the cannon burst happened.

[@jameswoolley7421]

GREAT VIDEO ,THANKS

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

Thank you so much! The animation for Chickamauga will be out in September and I've got many battles animated for you to check out.

[@Helm-w1q]

Robert E. Lee's finest hour.

[@georgemeara2562]

General Meads finest day he was only in charge for a couple of day and beat Lee

[@arkansasboy2177]

I had a confederate ancestor fighting in the wheat field he was in the 16th Georgia infantry

[@HistoryGoneWilder]

I hope this animated battle map helped you understand your ancestor's role in the battle.

[@arkansasboy2177]

@@HistoryGoneWilder it did thank you

[@the1magageneral323]

You have people claiming that the battle for the Round Tops are a myth. I think that is false.

[@lindacorwin9066]

Slow Down! I'm stopping the action WAYYYYYYYYYY too often and am losing continuity looking for, as an example, Benning's Georgians and some Arkansas troops in the neighborhood of Devil's Den on your map. I'm losing continuity and feel as confused as the Law and Robertson's brigades on July 2. The speed of your narration should be reflected by the speed of your map updates.

[@kidlast4154]

74th Pennsylvania ✊️

[@Fat12219]

What a waste of good on both sides 😢😢 North and South ⬇️⬇️ ⬇️

[@vm.999]

🫡🫡🫡

[@crawwwfishh3284]

Put the confederate flags on your shirts.

[@jamesstone9213]

Duh black manz won da war

[@felipeseguraiv2578]

I like how the climb and fightin was too much for the 47th Alabama twice

[@bidennumbskull7613]

That wheat field changed hands 6 times… Each time bloodier that the last. Can you imagine the Confederate and Federals piled on top of each other in that field.