Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies: Account of Picketts Charge

The most famous attack of the Civil War was also one of its most fatal. On July 3, 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Army of Northern Virginia commander Robert E. Lee decided to make a thrust at the center of the Unions line with about 15,000 men spread out over three divisions. Lees army had failed to flank the Army of the Potomac on the first two days of the battle, and the Union still held the high ground on Cemetery Hill. Though it is now known as Picketts Charge, named after division commander George Pickett, the assignment for the charge was given to General James Longstreet, whose Corps included Picketts division. Longstreet had serious misgivings about Lees plan and tried futilely to talk him out of it. Lees decision necessitated a heavy artillery bombardment of the Union line and attempting to knock out the Unions own artillery before beginning the charge that would cover nearly a mile of open space from Seminary Ridge to the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Lee tasked Porter Alexander, in charge of the 1st Corps guns, to conduct the artillery bombardment. What resulted was the largest sustained bombardment of the Civil War, with over 150 Confederate cannons across the line firing incessantly at the Union line for nearly 2 hours. Unfortunately for Porter Alexander and the Confederates, the sheer number of cannons belched so much smoke that they had trouble gauging how effective the shells were. As it turned out, most of the artillery was overshooting the target, landing in the rear of the Union line. Reluctant to order the charge, Longstreet commanded Porter Alexander to order the timing for the charge. As Longstreet and Alexander anticipated, the charge was an utter disaster, incurring a nearly 50% casualty rate and failing to break the Union line. When Lee later commanded Pickett to reform his division, Pickett is reputed to have replied, I have no division. After the Pennsylvania Campaign, one of the few accounts written by an officer who took part in Picketts Charge was Major C.S. Peyton, who took over the brigade of Richard B. Garnett after the Brigadier General was killed during the charge. Peyton commanded the 19th Virginia, one of the regiments in the very front of the charge, and as his report indicates, nearly 75% of the men in Garnetts brigade became casualties. Peytons account became part of The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. This edition of his account of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Pennsylvania Campaign includes pictures of the important commanders of the battle and the battlefield.

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