William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac

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[353] little band joined in, and had the satisfaction to retake and bring back its lost guns. A new line was then formed by Doubleday's and Robinson's divisions of the First Corps, and by troops from the Twelfth Corps, brought up by General Williams.¹

Thus, at dusk, ended the action on the left centre, and at the same time the complicated action on the left, whose ebb and flow I have already described, was brought to a close. It has been seen how line after line was swept back, and how the enemy, following on the heels of the troops of Ayres last engaged, debouched from the woods in front of Little Round Top. Thus far, the success of Longstreet had indeed been considerable; but it had no decisive character, and until this crest and spur should be carried, he could claim no substantial victory; for the position wrested from Sickles was one intrinsically false, and though the successive attacks of Barnes and Caldwell and Ayres had been repulsed, yet the advantage was gained at a heavy cost to the Confederates. When, therefore, debouching from the woods, they suddenly saw across a narrow swale the beetling sides of Little Round Top crowned with troops and artillery, and the figure of a battle array defined on the bold crest to the right,² their line was visibly shaken. At this moment six regiments of the division of Pennsylvania Reserves, moving down the ridge, rapidly advanced under the personal leadership of General Crawford. This sally was enough to determine the action; for seeing attack to be hopeless, and in turn assailed themselves, the Confederates, after a sharp but brief contest for the retention of a stone wall occupied by them, hastily recoiled to the woods beyond the wheat-field, the opposite margins of which were that night held by the combatants.