03 July 1863: Picketts Charge at Gettysburg
On July 3, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg reached its dramatic climax with Picketts Charge, a desperate Confederate assault that would become one of the most legendary and tragic episodes of the American Civil War. After two days of fierce fighting in the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania, Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered approximately 12,500 soldiers to march across nearly a mile of open ground toward the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge.
The decision to launch the charge remains one of the most debated in military history. Lee believed that his artillery bombardment had weakened the Union center sufficiently for an infantry assault to break through. His subordinate, General James Longstreet, who would lead the attack, was deeply skeptical of the plan and later wrote that he believed the charge was doomed before it began. Nevertheless, the order was given.
At approximately 3:00 in the afternoon, the Confederate soldiers emerged from the tree line of Seminary Ridge and began their long march toward the Union position. The men advanced in disciplined formation across open fields, their battle flags flying in the summer heat. For the Union soldiers watching from behind stone walls and earthworks on Cemetery Ridge, it was a breathtaking and terrifying sight.
The Union artillery and infantry unleashed a devastating fire on the advancing Confederates. Men fell by the hundreds, but the survivors pressed on, closing the distance under a storm of lead and iron. A small number of Confederate soldiers actually breached the Union line at a point now known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy, but they were quickly overwhelmed and either killed, captured, or driven back. The charge had failed catastrophically.
The losses were staggering. Nearly half of the men who participated in Picketts Charge became casualties in less than an hour. The division commanded by General George Pickett was virtually destroyed, losing all three of its brigade commanders and most of its regimental officers. When Lee asked Pickett to prepare his division for a potential counterattack, Pickett reportedly replied, General Lee, I have no division.
The failure of Picketts Charge marked the turning point of the Battle of Gettysburg and, arguably, of the entire Civil War. Lee was forced to retreat to Virginia, never again able to mount a major offensive into Northern territory. The Confederate dream of winning the war through a decisive victory on Union soil died on the slopes of Cemetery Ridge that hot July afternoon, taking with it thousands of young men whose sacrifice would be remembered for generations to come.
