It is late afternoon. Artillery fire is heard in the west. Chamberlain and Kilrain are ordered to form the regiment and follow Vincent. The Confederates are moving on the left flank. Vincent explains how Sickles moved his men into the Peach Orchard against orders and that he has endangered the whole Union line.
Vincent places Chamberlain’s men on Little Round Top, emphasizing that they are the end of the Union line and must hold at all costs. He leaves to place the rest of his brigade.
Chamberlain looks over his men and the terrain and then places them. He sends one unit far into the woods to alert him if the enemy tries to flank them. They can see the battle below in the Peach Orchard and that Sickles’ units are being flanked.
Chamberlain convinces three of the six remaining mutineers to fight. The last three will have no part of it, and Chamberlain wastes no men to guard them. He merely says he expects them to be there when this is over.
The fighting starts shortly after their arrival. Men go down. The action is fast. Wave after wave of Confederate attacks are repelled, but the cost is high. Kilrain is wounded, but keeps fighting. Chamberlain notices a flanking movement, climbs up on a boulder to direct the defense, and is hit. But he continues to fight. To counter any more flanking moves by the enemy, Chamberlain orders his line to be stretched out and then near the end turned at right angles to the rest of the line. This way, any flanking movement will be met head on.
They continue to repel attacks, but are about out of ammunition. Men are falling dead all around him, and Chamberlain keeps shifting men, taking ammunition from wounded, trying to make every last man and every bit of supplies count. At one point, Chamberlain even uses his brother Tom to plug a hole in the line. Chamberlain reflects briefly on this, noting Tom is okay.
With a third of the men gone, the rest exhausted, the ammunition used up, and the awareness that they can’t pull out no matter what, Chamberlain does the only thing left. He orders his men to fix bayonets and execute a right wheel forward. They charge down the hill, overwhelm the Rebels, and take hundreds of prisoners. This battle is over.
Amazed congratulations come in from the other Union commanders. The Union men are exhausted, exhilarated, and triumphant. Their casualties number almost half the regiment, about the same number they took on when Chamberlain convinced the 2nd Maine mutineers to join them. They realize they fought off four Southern regiments. Yet there is gentleness shown to the prisoners. Chamberlain spared a man at lance point during the charge, and later he shares water with the vanquished soldiers.
Kilrain is seriously wounded. He was shot a second time during the battle, yet prevented someone from shooting Chamberlain. The two men share an emotional moment as Chamberlain wordlessly acknowledges the pride in Kilrain’s eyes. They try to minimize the seriousness of Kilrain’s wound, but Chamberlain feels alarm seeing the weariness in the old man’s eyes.
Chamberlain is ordered by Colonel Rice to move his men to cover Big Round Top. Rice is the new brigade commander as Colonel Vincent was mortally wounded during the battle. Chamberlain reflects that they are again the extreme flank of the Union line. He readies the men and then says good-bye to Kilrain, the man who had welcomed him to the regiment, the man who had always been there. Chamberlain does not know what to say him and moves away. Looking over the battle scene one last time, he feels incredible joy at their success.
