By Daniel Ford
I just finished Michael Shaara’s classic Civil War novel The Killer Angels. It includes three of the best lines about warfare I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot of books about warfare):
“Like a shot into a rotten leg, a wet thick leg. All a man is: wet leg of blood.”
“He passed a hospital wagon, saw mounded limbs glowing whitely in the dark, a pile of legs, another of arms. It looked like masses of fat white spiders.”
“He moved as if his body was filled with cold cement that was slowly hardening, and yet there was something inside bright and hot and fearful, as if something somewhere could break at any moment, as if a rock in his chest teetering and could come crashing down.” I had the same thought after reading each line: Hand Michael Shaara all the Pulitzers forever (the book indeed won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975).
It’s impossible to pick my favorite moment from the book, but it’s easy to choose the most badass.
Colonel Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine is defending Little Round Top at the end of the Union’s left flank during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. He’s facing yet another Confederate attempt to take the hill. His men are running out of ammunition. He’s been ordered to hold the ground at all cost and to not retreat under any circumstances.
Chamberlain orders his man to fix bayonets and to charge down the hill. They do in smashing fashion. A Confederate regiment is in full flight (a rare sight for a Union man) and Chamberlain’s men end up taking more than 100 Rebel prisoners.
Fix bayonets! Charge!
I maintain that this was the most badass moment in American history. The stakes couldn’t be higher, a professor by trade made the decision to attack an opposing regiment with not much more than steel and fists, and the victory poked a hole in the belief that General Robert E. Lee’s men army was invincible (which would be laid to rest forever the following day during Pickett’s Charge).
However, being the amateur historian that I am, I realize something this subjective deserves closer examination. So I picked out nine other badass moments from American history we can all debate. You can add to the list in our comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
10. Chief Joseph Surrenders
It’s never easy admitting defeat, especially if you know the worst is yet to come. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to U.S. forces on Oct 5, 1877. His speech on the occasion is worth printing in full. It’s a badass moment after a lifetime of sorrow and before a lifetime of it left to endure:
“Tell General Howard that I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead, Tu-hul-hil-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who now say yes or no. He who led the young men [Joseph's brother Alikut] is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people—some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets and no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more against the white man.”