Pickett's Charge

The Battle of Gettysburg is considered to be the turning point of the Civil War.  And while the North had been forced to retreat out of the town at the end of the first day, they had gained the advantage by the second day.  They had successfully held the high ground along Seminary Ridge and braced themselves for another day of attack.  Robert E. Lee knew that it was imperative that he gain control of Seminary Ridge in order to secure a victory.  His  main worry was that his Southern troops would have to march across one thousand yards of open territory, and thus would be easy targets for the Northern cannons which were entrenched on Seminary Ridge.

At 1:00 PM on July 3, 1863, Lee ordered his cannons to fire continuously on Seminary Ridge in order to destroy as many Northern cannons as possible before the Southern soldiers crossed the field.  At 2:00 PM, Lee ordered his Southern troops to begin marching across the wide, open clearing.  The troops were led by George Pickett, J. Johnston Pettingrew and Isaac Trimble.  The majority of soldiers were Virginian, but there was a large group from North Carolina as well.  They numbered 12,000 and were stretched out across a mile of territory.  One of the outnumbered Northerners described the Southern advance as an "ocean of men sweeping upon us."

Unfortunately for Lee, his Southern cannons had aimed too far behind the ridge and the Northern cannons had not been destroyed.  They began to fire on the Southern troops marching across the territory.  Pickett's troops had nowhere to hide and their numbers quickly fell.  A significantly smaller group reached the Northern line where they were forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat.  They soon realized that reinforcements were not coming to help them, so they had to retreat.  Less than half of the original 12,000 soldiers returned to Lee.  Many Southern soldiers reported that they saw Lee crying when Pickett's men came back in defeat.   When Lee told Pickett to prepare his division for a Northern counter-attack, Pickett told him that so many of his troops had just died that he did not even have a division anymore.

I recently spent New Year's Eve with my husband's family.  Knowing that I am interested in history, my brother-in-law began to describe a statue that he saw at the Gettysburg battlefield site.  I found his description so interesting, that I decided to make Pickett's Charge the subject for this week's blog.  Here is what my brother-in-law told me about the statue:

The man in the front is a Southern soldier looking at Seminary Ridge with fierce determination on his face.  And while many would think that he is the obvious star of the monument, it is the men in the background who are the most interesting to look upon.  The man on the back-left is very young.  He represents all the fresh, new soldiers who's first foray into battle was trial by fire at Gettysburg.  This green soldier is looking up at the large number of Northern soldiers on top of Seminary Ridge with fear in his eyes.  The man in the back-middle is a veteran soldier.  He is older and has experience in battle.  He is talking to the young soldier and giving him encouragement.  The above picture does not show this angle, but the veteran is also touching the young soldier's arm.  It appears as if he is pushing the young, inexperienced soldier onto the battlefield.  Apparently, this "forced encouragement" was how many of Pickett's soldiers made it across the killing field.