Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg: Cemetery Ridge and Union

The heaviest pressure of the Confederate attack fell upon the salient angle in Sickle's line at the peach orchard. This position was stubbornly defended, but was at length carried by the impetuous assaults of Longstreet's men. Its capture quickly exposed the faulty character of the Union line. The enemy had burst through its central key-point, and was at liberty to assail the disrupted forces to right and left. One of the most desperate conflicts of the war ensued. The exposed lines were gradually withdrawn, while other brigades and divisions were hurried to the front, and a confused succession of advances and retreats took place, in which many valuable officers lost their lives, and the ground was strewn with multitudes of the dead and dying. General Sickles himself was severely wounded, losing a leg. Finally the Union line reached the position it had been originally intended to occupy, along the crest of Cemetery Ridge. The efforts of the enemy to break the line continued, but they had lost so heavily during their advance, and were so exhausted by their efforts, that their final sallies were easily repelled. Though Longstreet's success had been considerable, it was in no sense decisive. No point of Cemetery Ridge had been taken. About dusk Hancock ordered a counter-charge, before which the enemy easily yielded. On the left six regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserves, led by General Crawford, advanced on the enemy in front of Little Round Top, drove them from a stone wall which they had occupied, and to the woods beyond the wheat-field in front. During the night the opposite margins of this field were held by the combatants.

Ewell's attack on the Union right had been somewhat more successful. Johnson's division had gained a foothold within the Union lines which it held during the night. It was intended by Lee to make this position, in the next day's battle, the basis of an assault in force on the right wing of the Union army, while the left should be simultaneously assailed. But this project was seriously deranged by Meade's promptness of action. Early on the morning of the 3d a strong attack was made on Johnson before reinforcements could reach him, and he was driven out of the works he had occupied. The Union lines at that point were re-formed.

Lee's plan of action was now changed, and an assault ordered against the Union centre. Pickett's division of Virginians was selected to make this desperate charge, one destined to become famous in the annals of war. In preparation for the assault the great bulk of the Confederate artillery was massed in front of the selected point of attack, and the most terrible artillery-fire of the whole war opened upon the Union intrenchments. Meade had massed a smaller number of guns to reply. The story of the grand charge that succeeded, and of its disastrous repulse, we give in the words of the Comte de Paris, from the translated edition of his "History of the Civil War in America," published by Messrs. Porter & Coates, of Philadelphia.]

IT is now the hottest time of day; a strange silence reigns over the battle-field, causing the Federal soldiers, worn out with fatigue, to look upon the impending general attack, which they have anticipated since early dawn, as extremely long in coming. . . . Longstreet learns at last that everything is ready; his orders are awaited to open the fire which is to precede the assault. . . . Much time has been lost, for it is already one o'clock in the after-noon. Two cannon-shots fired on the right by the Washington Artillery at intervals of one minute suddenly break the silence which was prevailing over the battle-field. It means, "Be on your guard!" which is well understood by both armies. The solitary smoke of these shots has not yet been dispersed when the whole Confederate line is one blaze. . . . One hundred and thirty-eight pieces of cannon obey Longstreet's signal. The Federals are not at all surprised at this abrupt prelude: they have had time to recover from the shock of the previous day, and have made good use of it. . . . [They] have eighty pieces of artillery to reply to the enemy. In conformity with Hunt's orders, they wait a quarter of an hour before replying, in order to take a survey of the batteries upon which they will have to concentrate their fire. They occupy positions affording better shelter than those of the Confederates, but the formation of their line gives the latter the advantage of a concentric fire.