GDG- Units history and what has caught my attention.

[Alan D. Brunelle]

I wish a Mainer would step forward and speak with puffed out chest about 
the 4th, 16th, 17th & 20th Maine infantry regiments. The state as a 
whole provided 3,752 soldiers to the battle (Busey & Martin, pg 355), 
and gave 1,027 (27.4% - pgs 490, 491). But that doesn't begin to tell 
the story of the impact that those four regiments had -

    * the 16th Maine's stand late in the afternoon on Day 1on Oak Ridge
    * the 4th holding off the hoard of Confederates behind Houck's ridge
    * the 17th standing firm along the stone wall in the Wheatfield
    * the 20th's famous stand on Little Round Top (Vincent's Spur)

And I'm probably missing some other things. I've always been very 
impressed (in particular) by the work the 16th & 17th ME regiments did. 
[We New Englanders have regional pride in general - especially the 
remaining "true" New England states (north of the Communist Republic of 
Taxachusetts :-) ), and while New Hampshire residents know that Mainers 
are strange people - only Vermonters are stranger in our eyes* - we can 
truly appreciate the hardy folk from the coast and woodlands of that 
great state.]

Alan
* A bit off topic, but a great story about Vermonters (told 3rd hand...)

So, this literary student from New York (or New Yauk, if you will), 
finishes school and heads to Vermont - to live a life of contemplation 
and writing. After many - many! - years of living in this community, he 
feels quite at home. Whilst sitting back in a local store one lazy 
afternoon, he notes that having been living in Vermont so long, that he 
must now be considered a Vermonter. An old Vermont Yankee looks over his 
glasses at the man and says: "Last spring my cat had her litter in our 
wood stove. That don't mean those kittens are pancakes."