They secure and hold Little Round Top against repeated attacks. Late, on the third of July, a desperate attempt from the Confederates to break the middle of the Union army fails as thousands of southerners die in Pickett's Charge. The Union finally received their long awaited victory. Gettysburg then becomes the turning point of the Civil War. .
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is probably one of history's most humble and unpredicted heroes. He was a college professor before the war. He was introduced to the reader as "grave, with a boyish dignity, that clean-eyed, scrubbed-brain, nave look of the happy professor." He was a man who had "grown-up believing in America and the individual and it was a stronger faith than his faith in God." Chamberlain was the new commander of the 20th Maine on the second day at Gettysburg. A day that found his command placed at the most important location on the battlefield, the extreme left flank of the Union army. Colonel Strong Vincent placed him into position with this order, "You can not withdraw, under any conditions. If you go they will go right up the hilltop and take us in the rear. You must defend this place to the last." Using bayonets and a brilliant charge, Chamberlain and his men did just as they were ordered. They held the left and pushed the rebels back. His defense of Little Round Top helped Joshua Chamberlain become one of the greatest heroes of the war. .
This book is also very effective on displaying the courage found deep inside each and every man. Just as Little Round Top illustrated the courage of Chamberlain and the 20th Maine, Pickett's Charge is a great example of Southern valor. As told through the perspective Confederate General Lewis Armistead, "Armistead halted the men. They stood incredibly still in the open field with the artillery coming down like hail, great bloody hail . He (Armistead) began to move out past wounded struggling to the rear, men falling out to help, gray faces as he passed, eyes sick with fear, but the line moved on.