Longstreet looked for ways
to avoid ordering the charge by attempting to pass responsibility to young Col.
Alexander, but he eventually did give the order himself non-verbally; when
Alexander notified Pickett that he was running dangerously short of ammunition—"Come
quick or my ammunition will not let me support you properly"—Longstreet
nodded reluctantly to Pickett's request to step off. For Pickett, there was
virtually no Confederate artillery with ammunition available to support his
assault directly.[21]
Infantry assault
Cemetery Ridge, looking
south along the ridge with Little Round Top and Big Round Top in the distance.
The monument in the foreground is the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument.
The entire force that stepped off toward the Union positions at
about 2 p.m.[14] consisted of about 12,500 men.[22] Although the attack is
popularly called a "charge", the men marched deliberately in line, to
speed up and then charge only when they were within a few hundred yards of the
enemy. The line consisted of Pettigrew and Trimble on the left, and Pickett to
the right. The nine brigades of men stretched over a mile-long (1,600 m)
front. The Confederates encountered heavy artillery fire while advancing nearly
three quarters of a mile across open fields to reach the Union line and were
slowed by fences in their path. These obstacles played a huge role in the large
number of casualties the advancing Confederates faced. The ground between
Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Ridge is slightly undulating, and the advancing
troops periodically disappeared from the view of the Union cannoneers. As the
three Confederate divisions advanced, awaiting Union soldiers began shouting
"Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!" in reference to the
disastrous Union advance on the Confederate line during the 1862 Battle of
Fredericksburg. Fire from Lt. Col. Freeman McGilvery's concealed artillery
positions north of Little Round Top raked
the Confederate right flank, while the artillery fire from Cemetery Hill hit
the left. Shell and solid shot in the beginning turned to canister and musket fire as the Confederates came
within 400 yards of the Union line. The mile-long front shrank to less
than half a mile (800 m) as the men filled in gaps that appeared
throughout the line and followed the natural tendency to move away from the flanking
fire.[23]
On the left flank of the attack, Brockenbrough's brigade was
devastated by artillery fire from Cemetery Hill. They were also subjected to a
surprise musket fusillade from the 8th Ohio Infantry regiment. The 160
Ohioans, firing from a single line, so surprised Brockenbrough's
Virginians—already demoralized by their losses to artillery fire—that they
panicked and fled back to Seminary Ridge, crashing through Trimble's division
and causing many of his men to bolt as well. The Ohioans followed up with a
successful flanking attack on Davis's brigade of Mississippians and North
Carolinians, which was now the left flank of Pettigrew's division. The
survivors were subjected to increasing artillery fire from Cemetery Hill. More
than 1,600 rounds were fired at Pettigrew's men during the assault. This
portion of the assault never advanced much farther than the sturdy fence at the
Emmitsburg Road. By this time, the Confederates were close enough to be fired
on by artillery canister and Alexander Hays' division unleashed very effective
musketry fire from behind 260 yards of stone wall, with every rifleman of the
division lined up as many as four deep, exchanging places in line as they fired
and then fell back to reload.[24]
Trimble's division of two brigades followed Pettigrew's, but made
poor progress. Confusing orders from Trimble caused Lane to send only 3½ of his
North Carolina regiments forward. Renewed fire from the 8th Ohio and the
onslaught of Hays's riflemen prevented most of these men from getting past the
Emmitsburg Road. Scales's North Carolina brigade, led by Col. William L. J.
Lowrance, started with a heavier disadvantage—they had lost almost two-thirds
of their men on July 1. They were also driven back and Lowrance was wounded.
The Union defenders also took casualties, but Hays encouraged his men by riding
back and forth just behind the battle line, shouting "Hurrah! Boys, we're
giving them hell!". Two horses were shot out from under him. Historian Stephen
W. Sears calls Hays's performance "inspiring".[26]
On the right flank, Pickett's Virginians crossed the Emmitsburg
Road and wheeled partially to their left to face northeast. They marched in two
lines, led by the brigades of Brig. Gen. James L. Kemper on the right and Brig.
Gen. Richard B. Garnett on
the left; Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead's
brigade followed closely behind. As the division wheeled to the left, its right
flank was exposed to McGilvery's guns and the front of Doubleday's Union
division on Cemetery Ridge. Stannard's Vermont Brigade marched forward, faced
north, and delivered withering fire into the rear of Kemper's brigade. At about
this time, General Hancock, who had been prominent in displaying himself on
horseback to his men during the Confederate artillery bombardment, was wounded
by a bullet striking the pommel of his saddle, entering his inner right thigh
along with wood fragments and a large bent nail. He refused evacuation to the
rear until the battle was settled.[27]
As Pickett's men advanced, they withstood the defensive fire of
first Stannard's brigade, then Harrow's, and then Hall's, before approaching a
minor salient in the Union center, a low stone wall taking an 80-yard
right-angle turn known afterward as "The Angle." It was defended by
Brig. Gen. Alexander S. Webb's Philadelphia Brigade.
Webb placed the two remaining guns of (the severely wounded) Lt. Alonzo Cushing's Battery A, 4th U.S.
Artillery, at the front of his line at the stone fence, with the 69th and 71st
Pennsylvania regiments of his brigade to defend the fence and the guns. The two
guns and 940 men could not match the massive firepower that Hays's division, to
their right, had been able to unleash.[28]
Two gaps opened up in the Union line: the commander of the 71st
Pennsylvania ordered his men to retreat when the Confederates came too close to
the Angle; south of the copse of trees, the men of the 59th New York (Hall's
brigade) inexplicably bolted for the rear. In the latter case, this left
Captain Andrew Cowan and his 1st New York Independent Artillery Battery to face
the oncoming infantry. Assisted personally by artillery chief Henry Hunt, Cowan
ordered five guns to fire double canistersimultaneously. The entire
Confederate line to his front disappeared. The gap vacated by most of the 71st
Pennsylvania, however, was more serious, leaving only a handful of the 71st,
268 men of the 69th Pennsylvania, and Cushing's two 3-inch rifled guns to
receive the 2,500 to 3,000 men of Garnett's and Armistead's brigades as they
began to cross the stone fence. The Irishmen of the 69th Pennsylvania resisted
fiercely in a melee of rifle fire, bayonets, and fists.
Webb, mortified that the 71st had retreated, attempted to bring the 72nd
Pennsylvania (a Zouave regiment) forward,
but for some reason they did not obey the order, so he had to bring other
regiments in to help fill the gap. During the fight, the severely wounded Lt.
Cushing was killed as he shouted to his men, three bullets striking him, the
third in his mouth. The Confederates seized his two guns and turned them to
face the Union troops, but they had no ammunition to fire. As more Union
reinforcements arrived and charged into the breach, the defensive line became
impregnable and the Confederates began to slip away individually, with no
senior officers remaining to call a formal retreat.[29]
The infantry assault lasted less than an hour. The supporting
attack by Wilcox and Lang on Pickett's right was never a factor; they did not
approach the Union line until after Pickett was defeated, and their advance was
quickly broken up by McGilvery's guns and by the Vermont Brigade.[30]
While the Union lost about 1,500 killed and wounded, the Confederate
casualty rate was over 50%. Pickett's division suffered 2,655 casualties (498
killed, 643 wounded, 833 wounded and captured, and 681 captured, unwounded).
Pettigrew's losses are estimated to be about 2,700 (470 killed, 1,893 wounded,
337 captured). Trimble's two brigades lost 885 (155 killed, 650 wounded, and 80
captured). Wilcox's brigade reported losses
of 200, Lang's about 400. Thus, total losses during the attack were 6,555, of
which at least 1,123 Confederates were killed on the battlefield, 4,019 were
wounded, and a good number of the injured were also captured. Confederate
prisoner totals are difficult to estimate from their reports; Union reports
indicated that 3,750 men were captured.[31]
The casualties were also high among the commanders of the charge.
Trimble and Pettigrew were the most senior casualties of the day; Trimble lost
a leg, and Pettigrew received a minor wound to the hand (only to die from a
bullet to the abdomen suffered in a minor skirmish during the retreat to
Virginia).[32] In Pickett's division, 26 of
the 40 field grade officers (majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels) were
casualties— 12 killed or mortally wounded, nine wounded, four wounded and captured,
and one captured.[33] All of his brigade commanders
fell: Kemper was wounded seriously, captured by Union soldiers, rescued, and
then captured again during the retreat to Virginia; Garnett and Armistead were
killed. Garnett had a previous leg injury and rode his horse during the charge,
despite knowing that conspicuously riding a horse into heavy enemy fire would
mean almost certain death. Armistead, known for leading his brigade with his
cap on the tip of his sword, made the farthest progress through the Union
lines. He was mortally wounded, falling near "The Angle" at what is
now called the High Water
Mark of the Confederacy. Ironically, the Union troops that fatally
wounded Armistead were under the command of his old friend, Winfield S. Hancock,
who was himself severely wounded in the battle. Per his dying wishes, General
Longstreet delivered Armistead's Bible and other personal effects to General
Hancock's wife, Almira.[34] Of the 15 regimental commanders in
Pickett's division, the Virginia Military
Institute produced 11 and all were casualties—six killed, five
wounded.[35]
Stuart's cavalry action in indirect support of the infantry
assault was unsuccessful. He was met and stopped by Union cavalry under the
command of Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg about three miles
(5 km) to the east, in East Cavalry Field.[36]
As soldiers straggled back to the Confederate lines along Seminary
Ridge, Lee feared a Union counteroffensive and tried to rally his center,
telling returning soldiers and Gen. Wilcox that the failure was "all my
fault." General Pickett was inconsolable for the rest of the day and never
forgave Lee for ordering the charge. When Lee told Pickett to rally his
division for the defense, Pickett allegedly replied, "General Lee, I have
no division."[37]
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