Pickett's Charge
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by Edwin Forbes
Map of Pickett's Charge (details), July 3, 1863
Pickett's Charge was 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 was predicted by the charge's commander, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, and it was arguably an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort never fully recovered 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 led the assault under Longstreet.
Pickett's charge was part of Lee's "general plan"[1] to take Cemetery Hill and the network of roads it commanded. His military secretary, A. L. Long, described 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.[2]
On the night of July 2, Meade correctly predicted at a council of war that Lee would attack the center of his lines the following morning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett%27s_Charge
