During this session, attendees will take a bus to the Gettysburg National Military Park for a private walking tour around Little Round Top. This session will include a review of the Union Army’s defenses on day two of the battle, a discussion of the history of the battlefield site, and time for questions and discussion with our guide. The session will start with a classroom-style discussion, highlighting the leadership lessons learned from Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and applying those lessons to managing your health care team.
Colonel Chamberlain and his 20th Maine regiment’s defense of Little Round Top is perhaps one of the most famous confrontations of the Battle of Gettysburg. This session examines how he, in times of great distress, recognized the power of strategic thinking, made the necessary quick decisions, and preserved the overall goal of the Union Army. Colonel Chamberlain’s own battlefield experiences help us to realize the importance of good leadership and to examine transactional and transformational leadership styles. Little Round Top is one of two rocky hills located in the South of Gettysburg and the position of the far-left flank of the Union army during the Battle of Gettysburg. On the second day of the battle, Union troops undefended this strategic ground, leaving the Union line open to attack from Confederate forces. Colonel Chamberlain was ordered to guard this position and quickly understood the strategic significance of the small hill—meaning that his regiment must hold the Union line at all costs. In the last moments, as all seemed lost, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge that almost doubled back on its line, capturing over one hundred soldiers and maintaining the Union defense of the high ground of the battlefield.