ONE decision...(Part 1)

made by an ordinary person, can change the world.
Don't think so?
Then it's time to fire up the WayBack machine...
To July 2nd, 1863, where a schoolteacher in mortal peril did just that.

...

His name was Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a professor of Rhetoric at Bowdoin College in Maine. But on this day, he was a Colonel in the Union Army, in command of the
20th Maine Regiment. 20th Maine was that day defending a hill called Little Round Top just outside of a small Pennsylvania town named Gettysburg.

Yes. That Gettysburg.

Little Round Top and the 20th Maine were on the left end of the Union line, and were in a critical position; if the Confederates could get around, or through, them, they would be able to wreak havoc behind the Union line, cutting off any possibility of retreat. Basically, if the 20th Maine were overrun, the battle was lost.

Already this day, the 20th Maine had aquitted itself nobly; it had held off four full Confederate attacks, the last actually reaching the wall the 20th was using as a fortification. Chamberlain's men had literally been punching Confederates in the face - combat had gotten THAT close. But not without cost. Col. Chamberlain had lost over half his men, and almost a third of those remaining were wounded. His line was thin indeed.

As the Confederates gathered for another charge, Chamberlain quickly surveyed his situation. He found that they were so low on ammuntion as to have only 2 rounds per man left. The 20th Maine was, for all intents and purposes, OUT of ammunition, outnumbered five-to-one, and the Confederates were beginning their charge.

(to be Continued...)