Chamberlain
- A lieutenant guides Chamberlain and his men along the Union line: tons of men and cannons and wagons stretches across Cemetery Ridge.
- The lieutenant points out the place where a Minnesota regiment made a charge that pushed back a Confederate assault but resulted in worse casualties than even the 20th Maine suffered.
- The lieutenant also says that Meade wanted to withdraw, but the corps commanders unanimously voted him down.
- The 20th Maine is left in reserve. Chamberlain wants to get some grub while Tom goes to check on Kilrain in the field hospital.
- Hungry and tired, Chamberlain thinks about his family and searches for food. He gets invited to meet General Sykes, his commanding officer.
- When Chamberlain reaches the place where the officers are eating, he sees Hancock (who predicted the Confederates would attack the center of line) and Sykes.
- Sykes compliments Chamberlain on a job well done and wants Chamberlain to write a report on it. Sykes asks Chamberlain what he does, and he explains that he's a professor at Bowdoin. He asks Sykes for rations, which Sykes helps arrange.
- Chamberlain walks back to his regiment, his foot bleeding. On the way, he gets some chicken from Hancock's officers and brings some back for his men as well.
- Chamberlain feels guilty, remembering how he used Tom to plug a hole in the line. There's too much killing of brothers in this war already, he thinks.
- Tom comes back from the field hospital. It was a horrible experience: Tom brings the sad news that Kilrain has died.
- Chamberlain is upset. Although he usually believes in heaven, at this particular moment he feels that Kilrain is gone for good and death is really the end.
- Suddenly, a few cannon shots come—and then what feels like all the guns in the world, as the Confederates begin their bombardment.
- Chamberlain, in a dreamlike state, sees cooks and bakers running, pulling wagons, as shells fall all around.
- Somehow, Chamberlain manages to sleep for an unknown amount of time, waking up to the same bombardment. Injured horses run by, and the earth shudders.
- Hancock and an orderly manage to ride by unscathed. The Confederates lengthen the aim of the cannons and start to miss more.
- Fragments of men, horses, dirt, rock, and metal all fly by, but the cannons still don't seem to be hitting as much as intended.
- Chamberlain worries—he needs to form the regiment and get ready to fight, but, exhausted, he collapses in sleep.