Pickett's Charge

Pickett's Charge is an infantry assault ordered by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee against Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Union positions on July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg in the state of Pennsylvania during the American Civil War.

Its futility is predicted by the charge's commander, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, and it is arguably an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort will never fully recover militarily or psychologically.

The farthest point reached by the attack has been referred to as the high-water mark of the Confederacy.

The charge is named after Maj. Gen. George Pickett, one of three Confederate generals who leads the assault under Longstreet.

Pickett's Charge wis part of Lee's "general plan" to take Cemetery Hill and the network of roads it commands.

His military secretary, Armistead Lindsay Long, describes Lee's thinking:

    There was... a weak point... where [Cemetery Ridge], sloping westward, formed the depression through which the Emmitsburg road passes. Perceiving that by forcing the Federal lines at that point and turning toward Cemetery Hill [Hays' Division] would be taken in flank and the remainder would be neutralized.... Lee determined to attack at that point, and the execution was assigned to Longstreet.

On the night of July 2, Meade correctly predicts to General Gibbon, after a council of war, that Lee will attack the center of his lines the following morning.

The infantry assault is preceded by a massive artillery bombardment that is meant to soften up the Union defense and silence its artillery, but is largely ineffective.

Approximately twelve thousand five hundred men in nine infantry brigades advance over open fields for three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union artillery and rifle fire.

Although some Confederates are able to breach the low stone wall that shieldd many of the Union defenders, they cannot maintain their hold and are repulsed with over fifty percent casualties, a decisive defeat that ends the three-day battle and Lee's campaign into Pennsylvania.

Years later, when asked why his charge at Gettysburg failed, Pickett reportedly replies, "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."

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