Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg: Gibbon and Federals
Gibbon, seeing the enemy advancing with such determination, tries to stop his progress by a counter-charge, but his voice is not heard; his soldiers fire in haste, without leaving their ranks; the Confederates rush upon them. Unfortunately for the assailants, their right not being protected by Wilcox, their flank is exposed to the little wood which stretches beyond the Federal line. Stannard's soldiers, concealed by the foliage, have suffered but little from the bombardment; Hancock, always ready to seize a favorable opportunity, causes them to form en potence along the edge of the wood in order to take the enemy's line in flank. Two regiments from Armistead's right thus receive a murderous fire which almost decimates and disorganizes them. The remainder of the brigade throws itself in the rear of the centre of Pickett's line, which, following this movement, momentarily inclines towards Hays in order to attack the Federals at close quarters. Armistead, urging his men forward, has reached the front rank between Kemper and Garnett,--if it be yet possible to distinguish the regiments and brigades in this compact mass of human beings, which, all covered with blood, seems to be driven by an irresistible force superior to the individual will of those composing it, and throws itself like a solid body upon the Union line. The shock is terrific: it falls at first upon the brigades of Hall and Harrow, then concentrates itself upon that of Webb, against which the assailants are oscillating right and left. The latter general in the midst of his soldiers encourages them by his example; he is presently wounded. The struggle is waged at close quarters; the Confederates pierce the first line of the Federals, but the latter, dislodged from the wall, fall back upon the second line, formed of small earthworks erected on the ridge in the vicinity of their guns. These pieces fire grape-shot upon the assailants. Hancock and Gibbon bring forward all their reserves.. The regiments become mixed; the commanders do not know where their soldiers are to be found; but they are all pressing each other in a compact mass, forming at random a living and solid bulwark more than four ranks deep.
A clump of trees, in the neighborhood of which Cushing has posted his guns, commanding the whole plateau, is the objective point that the Confederates keep in view. Armistead, on foot, his hat perched on the point of his sword, rushes forward to attack the battery. With one hundred and fifty men determined to follow him unto death, he pierces the mass of combatants, passes beyond the earthworks, and reaches the line of guns, which can no longer fire for fear of killing friends and foes indiscriminately. But at the same moment, by the side of Cushing, his young and gallant adversary, he falls pierced with balls. They both lie at the foot of the clump of trees which marks the extreme point reached by the Confederates in this supreme effort. These few trees, henceforth historical, like a snail on the strand struck by a furious sea, no longer possessing strength enough to draw back into its shell, constitute the limit before which the tide of invasion stops,--a limit traced by the blood of some of the bravest soldiers that America has produced.
In fact, if the Federals have thus seen a large number of their chieftains fall, and their artillery left without ammunition, the effort of the assailants, on the other hand, is exhausted.
Wilcox, on the right, fails to reach a supporting position. Pettigrew, on the left, followed closely by Trimble, arrives near the point of contest, but fails to maintain his ground.
After a combat at short range, very brief, but extremely murderous, in which Trimble is seriously wounded, his troops and those of Pettigrew retire, even before the two brigades under Thomas and Perrin have reached their position, and while Pickett is still fighting on the right. The regular fire of Hays's impregnable line drives the assailants from that point in the greatest disorder as soon as they have taken one step in retreat. The four brigades of the Third Confederate corps that have thus been repulsed leave two thousand prisoners and fifteen stands of colors in the hands of the enemy. A few regiments of Archer's and Scales's brigades, which outflank Hays on the left, throw themselves on the right and unite with Pickett's soldiers, who are still contending with Gibbon. This reinforcement is, however, quite insufficient for the Confederates, who thus find themselves isolated, without support and without reserves, in the midst of the Federal line. Kemper is wounded in his turn. Out of eighteen field-officers and four generals, Pickett and one lieutenant-colonel alone remain unharmed: there is hardly any one left around them, and it is a miracle to see them yet safe and sound in the midst of such carnage.
The division does not fall back; it is annihilated. The flags which a while ago were bravely floating upon the enemy's parapets fall successively, to the ground, only to be picked up by the conquerors. A number of soldiers, not daring to pass a second time the ground over which the Federals cross their fire, throw down their arms: among those who are trying to gain the Southern lines many victims are stricken down by cannon-balls. The conflict is at an end. Out of four thousand eight hundred men that have followed Pickett, scarcely twelve to thirteen hundred are to be found in the rear of Alexander's guns; three thousand five hundred have been sacrificed and twelve stands of colors lost in this fatal charge.