Why History Is Never Accurate 

Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.

Consider that you are standing on the road and in the foreground you see a massive traffic accident while in the distance a factory explodes.  For you, the two events are simultaneous, but when you make your report to the authorities which do you describe first?  Do you go by proximity, putting the car crash goes first or by the size of the damage in which case, the factory goes first.  What makes an event important depends on both the narrator and the audience.

That's the problem with any narrative, no matter how well informed and specific.  The teller is going to make choices as to what to relate and what to leave out, as well as the order in which events are depicted.   

Add to this the problem of an expected account and some lies become self-perpetuating so that tellers start to alter their own narratives to fit what the audience believes ought to be in the story.   A good example is the story of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, Gettysburg on 2 July 1863.  Most folks know the story from Michael Shaara's 1974 novel The Killer Angels and the subsequent 1993 movie Gettysburg.  Nothing is particularly untrue in either account, but matters of perspective.

Until 1974 the historical focus was always on the battle on the far side of Little Round Top (LRT).  The traditional heroes of LRT were:

    Major General Gouverneur K. Warren (1830-1882) who first spotted the vulnerability on the Union left flank.

    Colonel Strong Vincent (1836-1863) of the 83rd PA Infantry whose brigade met Warren on the road and chose to take up the position on LRT.  Chamberlain's 20th ME was one of Vincent's regiments.

    Brigadier General Stephen H. Weed (1831-1863) in command of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps came to Vincent's relief when Confederates tried to flank the position.

    Lieutenant Charles E. Hazlett (1838-1863) commanded Battery D, 5th US Artillery which guns he brought to bear on the surging enemies on LRT.

    Colonel Patrick O'Rourke (1837-1863) commanded the 140th NY Volunteer Regiment, part of Weed's Brigade.

Of these five men, only Warren survived the battle.  The other four were killed or died in the days after LRT.  The pamphlets produced by the Gettysburg battlefield in the years after the war heralded these five men and made no mention of Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain (1828-1914) and the 20th ME.  Even the 1963 centennial brochure left out Chamberlain.  And yet now there is no discussion of LRT that does not center around Chamberlain.  

That's because Shaara's novel is an engaging read that breaks down the three day battle into three acts:  Buford on the first day as act one, Chamberlain on the second day as act two and Pickett on the third day as act three.  Simple, concise, dramatic and accessible.  Cast a movie with talented actors and history becomes set in stone.

It isn't that Shaara's account of the 20th ME is wrong, but it is incomplete.  While the book and the movie do cover the role these five men played, it is only by inference.  They are minor players who get very little attention when compared to the role played by Chamberlain.

The most glaring fault is repeating the idea that the Union charge drove the 15th Alabama Regiment from the hill, which is based on Chamberlain's official report and his Civil War memoir Bayonet Forward.  Chamberlain was not, however, the only officer to survive the encounter.  Colonel William C. Oates (1835-1910) in command of the 15th AL also filed an official report.  In his telling he and he alone called for a retreat because it was getting late, his men were exhausted and minutes earlier his younger brother John had fallen mortally wounded.  Seeing nothing more to be gained, Oates called for his men to fall back.

Oates' retreat came at the same time as Chamberlain's charge.  At this point each side saw what they expected to see.  The Union saw the Confederates flee.  The Confederates saw the Union chasing them.   While many think that one action must have precipitated the other, there is nothing preventing simultaneous events.  It is only in the telling that events must assume a particular order.

I have great respect for Chamberlain and the sacrifices of the 20th ME, but they were not alone and their struggles were no less heroic than the men who fought on the other side of the mountain.  For over a century Warren, Vincent, Weed, Hazlett and O'Rourke were remembered and venerated.  A novel should not be permitted to change history.