Jacob Lawrence, War No. 8: Beachhead (1947)

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October 19, 2004:

A few minutes walking around Little Round Top at Gettysburg.

Long moved by the out-of-ammunition bayonet charge of the Union troops to hold the line. The Colonel there, named Chamberlain I believe, later officiated over Lee's surrender at Appomattox. During the charge, a Confederate officer put a revolver in his face and pulled the trigger; it didn't fire.

The site itself seems too small for events of that magnitude: it's just a little hill with trees and little rock paths, reminding strongly of, say, the campgrounds in little nooks around Mt. Palomar. Americans killed Americans there to try to preserve human slavery.

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