The story of the true savior of Little Round Top at Gettysburg—a 26-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer, who paid with his life to defend that hill.

Citizen-soldier Strong Vincent was many things: Harvard graduate, lawyer, political speaker, descendent of pilgrims and religious refugees, husband, father, brother. But his greatest contribution to history is as the savior of the Federal left on the second day at Gettysburg, when he and his men held Little Round Top against overwhelming Confederate numbers. Forgotten by history in favor of his subordinate, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Vincent has faded into relative obscurity in the decades since his death.

This book restores Vincent to his rightful place among the heroes of the battle of Gettysburg: presenting his life story using new, never-before-published sources and archival material to bring the story of one of the most forgotten officers of the American Civil War back to the attention of readers and historians.

Introduction: The Vanishing of Vincent
The Strongs and The Vincents: Early Life, Education, and Courtship
January to August 1861: Lieutenant Vincent of "The Erie Regiment"
August 1861 to March 1862: The Eighty-Third Pennsylvania
Late March to September 1862: The Swamps of the Chickahominy
October 1862 to January 1863: Colonel Vincent
January to April 1863: "I enlisted to fight"
May to June 1863: "I wish he were a brigadier-general"
July 1, 1863: March to Mortality
July 2, 1863: The Lion of Round Top
July 3 to July 7, 1863: The Road to Immortality
The Path to Being Forgotten: The Legacy of Strong Vincent

"H.G. Myers has burst upon the scene of Civil War historical writing much like Strong Vincent and his brigade burst among the Confederates at Little Round top on July 2, 1863. He has written a definitive biography of Chamberlain's superior officer, retrieving for Vincent much of the game he once enjoyed for saving the key hill and, quite possibly, the Union army at Gettysburg. Myers' crisp, well-researched narrative reminds us of the best that biographical history offers while avoiding its many pitfalls. This is an excellent work."

"When Strong Vincent surrendered his life at Gettysburg, he ceded to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain the ground on which to shape a carefully crafted memory of the Union's defense of Little Round Top. With brisk prose and sound analysis, H. G. Myers reappraises the events on July 2, 1863, to position Vincent as the rightful hero who held the Federal left flank. Without Vincent's bold initiative and selfless courage, the Army of the Potomac may well have shattered on that fateful summer day."

"Modern scholarship and popular culture have pushed Strong Vincent into the shadows and increasingly minimized his central contributions to the defense of Little Round Top and the Federal victory at Gettysburg. H. G. Myers judicious biography of this nearly forgotten soldiers goes a long way toward fleshing out the man and restoring the soldier to his rightful place in the Gettysburg pantheon."

"The fighting at Gettysburg Little Round Top on July 2, 1863, stands as an iconic moment in the American Civil War. The Lion of Round Top rightfully places Colonel Strong Vincent among the panoply of Federal soldiers who successfully secured the Army of the Potomac's left flank that fateful day."

"Myers has met the most formidable of challenges. Although well known for his actions during the Battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Strong Vincent has never received the full biographical attention lavished on less interesting and less deserving topics. Myers, in his well-reasoned and well-researched work, provides a thorough account of Vincent's life and career, tragically cut short at Gettysburg... in his first major monograph, has further announced himself as a promising young historian from whom more great work is expected."