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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Chamberlain


> *"Stand firm, ye boys of Maine, for not once in a century are men permitted to bear such responsibilities for freedom and justice!"* 

       --Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, just before ordering the Union bayonet charge that successfully defended Little Round Top on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.

It was a skirmish on an outlying hill on the extreme left flank, on a burning hot day in July.  Had they failed, Gettysburg could have turned out very, very differently.

Again and again the 15th Alabama regiment charged up that hill with rifles thundering and again and again the boys of the 20th Maine threw them back.   Late in the afternoon, the Alabama 15th took one last try up the slopes of Little Round Top.  With most of the Union leadership on top of the hill already dead, with little visibility due to the smoke of battle, with no water on a hot July day, no hope of reinforcements, and with all ammo supplies exhausted, Col Joshua Chamberlain bellowed his order down the line:

“Fix Bayonets!!”

And the men of 20th Maine passed into legend. 

Gentleman of the 20th Maine (and 83rd Pennsylvania), it is 156 years later, and we remember what you did and what you gave that day.