MilitaryHistoryOnline.com

Pickett's Charge in Miniature
by Scott Mingus of North Coast Wargamers
scottmingus@yahoo.com

NOON, Friday, July 3rd, 1863

Union troops from the II Corps and the I Corps occupy a line on Cemetery Ridge. The Brian Farm is to the north center of the picture. The road to the left is Emmitsburg Road. To the right is Taneytown Road, choked with Union supply wagons and rear echelon support troops. The house surrounded by the white picket fence is the home of the Widow Leister, and is being used as headquarters for the Army of the Potomac by General George Gordon Meade and his staff. Just south of it is the Peter Frey house and farm.

A stone wall runs south from the Brian house towards a small copse of trees, then bends to the west briefly before turning south again. A section of the stone wall has been broken down the day previously to allow the passage of Brown's battery, which now has returned to the Union lines and is immediately behind the broken wall. Nearly 5000 men occupy the Union line. Winfield S. Hancock commands the center of the Union position, with John Gibbon temporarily in command of Hancock's II Corps. Gibbon and his escort are depicted to the right of the picture. The heat is oppressive - the men nervously await a resumption of hostilities. Across the open fields about a mile away is much of the Army of Northern Virginia.

1:00 PM - On the Confederate side, Robert E. Lee has massed nearly 15,000 men under the overall command of General James Longstreet for a planned attack on Hancock's position. Three complete divisions are planned for the attempt, one from Longstreet's Corps under General George Pickett and two from A.P. Hill's Corps, both under temporary commanders due to casualties from the previous two days of fighting. Isaac Trimble now commands the division of Dorsey Pender and Joseph Pettigrew, a scholar from North Carolina now is the leader of Harry Heth's Division. Both divisions had been heavily engaged on July 1st west of the town of Gettysburg, and had suffered relatively heavy losses. Now they would be called upon to attack the Yankees one more time. Lee's troops are in position on and around a low ridge known as Seminary Ridge.

In between the northern part of Cemetery Ridge (Union position) and Seminary Ridge (main CSA position) is an old sunken road known as Long Lane. Several CSA brigades are sheltered in the road behind fences, facing the Union line. They would not see significant action this day, and were designated as reserves to hold off any Union counterthrust from the Cemetery Ridge area. In an open field to their front is the small single Union regiment, the 8th Ohio of Red Carroll's brigade (II Corps). They will play an important role in the ensuing battle with Longstreet's attacking waves.

Near the McMillan farm, Rebel troops endure the heat, the humidity, and the gnawing fear in their stomachs as the day wears on. They will form into three separate lines, and will come forward across the fields (nearly a mile in some places) towards the Yankee lines on Cemetery Ridge. Artillery bristles along the entire Rebel line, on the ridge with batteries in McMillan's orchard, along the stone walls of McMillan's Woods and down to Spangler's Woods. The guns will open up around 1 p.m. and will make one of the loudest noises ever heard in North America up to that time, being heard in some cases over 100 miles away. In other cases, they won't be heard even a mile way due to acoustical quirks.

Rebel guns under the overall command of Porter Alexander prepare to open fire on the Union lines. Two of Pickett's three brigades under Kemper and Garnett are shown in position behind a low ridge running along a farm owned by the Spangler family. The third brigade under Lewis Armistead is in the shelter of Spangler's Woods just to the west (left) of this picture, as is General Longstreet. To the right is the Rogers farms and Emmitsburg Road, lined with very sturdy 5 rail fences. They will have to be climbed over as they are too strong to be broken down by the troops when they advance.

2:00 PM - The cannons under Porter Alexander have been firing for over an hour, They have succeeded in driving off Brown's battery and one other, but the Union has rushed up Cowan's Battery to replace Brown. Running short of ammunition to support the planned charge, Alexander gets word to Longstreet that the attack should commence now if it has any chance to succeed. Longstreet, knowing what the outcome would be, had earlier told General Lee that the 15,000 men would not succeed in breaking through the blue line. Under orders to attack when the optimum time came, reluctantly Longstreet nodded his head to Pickett's inquiry "General, should I give the order to advance?" Kemper, Garnett, and Armistead formed their men. To their north where Pettigrew's Division was, Fry's Brigade (the brigade of direction) stepped off towards the copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge. Kemper and Garnett moved forward. "For the glory of Old Virginia" Armistead followed in the 2nd wave. Trimble moved his supporting division into place, and also headed east for the Yankee position. Here, Kemper (extreme right) and Garnett (center) are making a series of oblique moves towards the Codori farmhouse. The two generals are mounted. To the left, men of Armistead's Brigade move forward as the general walks in front, sword outstretched. Already artillery fire from the Union line is starting to create havoc in the Rebel lines, dropping men and creating gaps that the file closers will fill. The CSA artillerymen are cheering and waving on Pickett's Division.

In the Rebel center, Pettigrew's division (right and upper left corner) and two brigades of Trimble's (left center under Marshall and Lane) heads across the fields of the Bliss farm, already starting to be filled with dead or wounded Rebels. Earlier in the day, the Bliss farmhouse and barn have been burned down to deny the Rebels their use as a shelter for sharpshooters. Their remains are smoldering near their orchard. To the upper left hand corner, Brockenbrough's small Virginia regiment is heading east, with Joe Davis' relatively green brigade to their right. The Yankees across the field admire the long crisp Confederate battlelines and banners as their enemy approaches the Emmitsburg Road.

The ground is strewn with casualties, and the formations are breaking up, but still the Rebels come on. To the north, the 8th Ohio has flanked Brockenbrough's Virginians and broken their attack. Now they concentrate on Davis' flank. In the center, Trimble and the remaining two brigades of Pettigrew's Division keep on coming. To the south, Kemper is sustaining fearful casualties from artillery, but still moves forward with Garnett past the Codori farm (pictured) as their lines begin to entangle. Crossing the dual fences aligning Emmitsburg Road, they come under long range musketry fire from the Union troops behind the stone wall and hasty works on Cemetery Ridge. General Garnett rides his charger forward at the head of his brigade. Death will await him.

Kemper's line is flanked by Stannard's large brigade of inexperienced Vermonters, ordered forward by Hancock himself. Hancock (bottom center of the picture) goes down with a painful thigh wound, Kemper goes down, his momentum is stopped and his lines begin to dissolve. Casualties abound. Musketry rakes the Rebel troops. Frantically waving his sword, Colonel Gates urges his I Corps demi-brigade to fire. To their right, Harrow's brigade also opens up on Kemper.

Union firepower breaks up the Rebel attack, and clumps of disorganized men replace the well-formed lines. To the south, Kemper's men continue to exchange fire with Harrow, Gates, and Stannard, but with Kemper gone along with the field officers, the brigade will no longer advance. Farther north, Garnett goes down, his body never to be identified and his attack stalls in disorder as well. Armistead and a few hundred of his men push through the mob and head for the angle of the stone wall. To their left, Fry and Lowrance fight with Yankees under Hall and Webb. Davis' Mississippians hit Smyth's Brigade of Unionists near the small farm of a free black man named Brian. Canister fire from the artillery and short-range musketry blow huge gaps in the Rebels. A crisis has arrived for the attacking Confederates. Many field officers have gone down. Trimble is wounded trying to urge his division forward, as is Pettigrew. Pickett is to the rear, probably in the fields near the Codori farm, and cannot issue effective orders to his reeling masses. Support troops under Wilcox and Posey to the far south have been beaten back by well-coordinated Union artillery fire. Along Long Lane, Iverson, Thomas, Ramseur, and other Rebel brigades stay huddled in the sunken lane, watching the spectacle to the southeast along Cemetery Ridge. Clumps of Rebels keep looking back at Seminary Ridge and at Long Lane, desperately wishing for fresh troops to come forward to assist them.

Singly and in groups, Rebels start streaming for the rear as Union reinforcements are rushed in to action. Rebel fire has noticeably slackened as their organization and numbers diminish. Armistead continues to push his way forward.

Armistead surges forward with roughly 200 men and cross over the stone wall. Cushing's Battery fires one last canister shot, and the Rebels close in.

Armistead's surge is checked as Webb rushes his reserves in. A bullet slams into Armistead, and he slumps to the ground. Hand to hand fighting rages along the angle and along the clump of trees. The "high water mark" has arrived - Rebels have pierced the Union center, but there are not enough support troops to sustain or exploit the brief penetration. All 200 men that cross the stone wall are casualties - killed, wounded, or captured.

Of the 15,000 Rebels who started across the fields, over 5,000 surrender unharmed all along the Union lines, along with dozens of their battleflags. Another 6,000 or so are dead or wounded and will fall into Union hands. As the survivors stream past Lee on Seminary Ridge as they fall back, Lee can be heard stating "it's all my fault." Seeing Pickett, he orders him to form his division for defensive purposes. Pickett replies that he has no division any longer. The victory is sudden and complete - the victorious Federal soldiers begin chanting "Fredericksburg!" at the sullen Rebels, an allusion to the 1862 battle in Virginia where Union forces attempting to take higher ground from Rebels who were behind a stone wall had failed. Now the situation was reversed. Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble's attack had failed, and for the first time, the Army of Northern Virginia had seen entire brigades come apart on the field of battle.