“Sharpshooters Made a Grand Record This Day” Combat on the Skirmish Line at Gettysburg on July 3
“Sharpshooters Made a Grand Record This Day” Combat on the Skirmish Line at Gettysburg on July 3 Timothy J. Orr On the morning of July 3, 1863, Corporal Eugene B. Kelleran, a soldier in Company I, 20th Maine Infantry, descended the slopes of Big Round Top, a rocky eminence where his regiment had spent the previous evening. Near dark on July 2, the fatigued Maine regiment scaled the wooded heights, drove off an enemy brigade, and took possession of the summit. As per standard procedure, the 20th Maine’s commander, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, deployed skirmishers to determine the layout of the Confederate line and to make certain that his regiment truly held the hill. Midway down the southwestern slope, Kelleran and his comrades collided with skirmishers from Colonel James Sheffield’s Alabama brigade. A short fight ensued, lasting only a few minutes. The Maine regiment lost Lieutenant Arad Linscott, who had seized an abandoned musket so he could get a shot at the gray-coats himself. A ball struck Linscott in the thigh, and he died several hours later at the Jacob Weikert farm.1 During this engagement, a Confederate skirmisher kneeling behind a rock took aim at Corporal Kelleran, who also lowered his own rifle and fired. Kelleran got off his shot, which passed through the Alabamian’s mouth and came out the back of his head. When the shooting subsided, Kelleran went to the blood-spattered boulder and noticed that the man’s hat had been left untouched by both the bullet and the resulting gore. Kelleran had long wanted a new hat, so he took this one from his fallen adversary.
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