Pickett's Charge: Why 12,500 Men Walked Into Certain Death

Comments · 159

• TI

  @times_of_history · 10 months ago · pinned

  Do you think that if General Lee had called off Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863, the Confederacy could have survived long enough to negotiate peace? Or was the assault at Gettysburg already the point of no return for the South?

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• TH

  @thisoldman7142 · 9 months ago

  Pickett’s charge stands as a testament to the arrogance of old man that don’t have to face an enemy’s bullets.

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• TH

  @thisoldman7142 · 8 months ago

  Longstreets quote before the step off says it all…..”General, I have been a soldier all my life….and should know, as well as anyone, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arranged for battle can take that position.”……Lee should have listened.

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• DA

  @daviddavenport9350 · 8 months ago

  When I was 8 years old, my family visited Gettysburg....I stared across the field from the Oak grove and thought to myself....an attack across those open fields was sheer madness.....yet Lee made his men do that very thing.....they were doomed from the start...

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• SA

  @sammygunzz5785 · 8 months ago

  Those guys in Picketts charge had balls of steel.

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• CA

  @candygirl6323 · 9 months ago

  One could almost say that General Lee was supporting the Union side with his disastrous destruction of the Confederate army.

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• MA

  @marknewton6984 · 10 months ago

  Lee wanted a truce after Second Manassas. Davis said no. Too bad

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• VI

  @vincentdavidson755 · 1 day ago

  Very sad all those good man cut down

• PA

  @Paul-lm5gv · 10 months ago

  Lee&apos;s great blunder of the Civil War! He ignored his generals’ pleas not to launch a front assault over a mile of open ground at Gettysburg! &nbsp;For supposedly being a brilliant military tactician, Lee ended up sending his young men to slaughter in Pickett&apos;s Charge - instead of living to fight another day! Pickett&apos;s Charge suffered over 50% casualties, higher in some regiments. <br> <br>- From Wikipedia: 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. Cadmus Wilcox (Brigade commander supporting Pickett) that the failure was &quot;all my fault.&quot; When Lee told Pickett to prepare his division to repel a possible counter attack, Pickett replied, &quot;General, I have no division.&quot; <br>- Pickett was inconsolable for the rest of the day and never forgave Lee for ordering the charge. <br>- From the Time-Life series on the Civil War: “Five years later when Pickett and Confederate guerrilla leader John Mosby paid a courtesy call on Lee in Richmond, the atmosphere was less than cordial. On departing, Pickett launched into a bitter diatribe. ‘That old man,’ he said ‘ had my division slaughtered at Gettysburg.’”

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• JA

  @jasonroberts6080 · 10 months ago

  Ww1 footage in a civil war doc?

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• BE

  @BerenE-z1m · 1 day ago

  If half of the people were killed, wounded or captured, how was the charge certain death...?

• MI

  @michaelalan6840 · 4 weeks ago

  General Lee counted on Stuart&apos;s cavalry to disrupt the union front by simultaneously attacking from the rear. The artillery&apos;s ceasing fire was the key to commence the attack that Lee had coordinated with Stuart. The heroism of Custer&apos;s repeated outnumbered assaults on Stuart&apos;s cavalry on Hanover Rd. prevented this planned assault from the rear. When Custer&apos;s men returned home, they were supremely honored for their work &amp; many losses in Pennsylvania. Lee would not blame Stuart&apos;s brave troopers any more than he&apos;d admit to Custer&apos;s courage after the horror that occurred to the courageous rebel infantry. Lee had actually followed Longstreet&apos;s strategy, but kept silent after the battle, because Lee was an honor-bound leader &amp; solely accepted his failed gamble [&quot;my fault&quot;], including silence to General Pickett&apos;s anger &amp; blame.