Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
July 3, 1863: Confederate forces attack the center of the Federal line at Gettysburg, but fail to break it.
144 years ago on this day in 1863, after two desperate days of slugging it out in the July heat in southern Pennsylvania, Robert E. Lee sends the equivalent of three divisions of infantry up the middle in a last ditch attempt to crack the Federal line at Gettysburg.
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The battle began inauspiciously enough. Lee had hoped to bring the war north out of Virginia in order to take the pressure off his fellow Virginians as her farmers worked to raise their 1863 crops which were vital to both feed the army and the civilian population. Lee also hoped to expose the Northern civilian population to the war's horrors and thus bring about an armistice.
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Scene from a 1988 reenactment
Day One as you'll recall ended with US forces fixed in a long fishook shaped defensive position anchored by high ground at both ends.
Day Two saw intense fighting on both ends as Lee tried to gain an advantage on either end and thus roll-up the Federal line with powerful flank attacks.
Day Three dawned hot and muggy with the Federals still firmly dug-in and unmoved. Lee reasoned that since they were clearly well manned on both ends as he had found on Day Two, the Federals had to be weak in the center and so he planned to order a frontal assault at that point.
Lee cobbled together an assault force built around George Pickett'sdivision of Virginians who had been in reserve the previous two days and thus relatively fresh. The men were drawn mostly from Lieutenant General "Pete" Longstreet's corps.
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Major General George Pickett. He was never the same after Gettysburg. Before Day Three dawned he was itching for the fight and the chance for glory. Afterwards, speaking of his commander Bobby Lee, he was said to say, "That old man threw away my division."
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As you can see from this graphic, they stepped-off from a wide front and were planned to converge at a common apex on a copse of trees at the precise center of the US line.
The attack was preceded by the most intense artillery bombardment in the the history of the western hemisphere. Unfortunately for Lee's gray-clad legions, much of the artillery fire was poorly laid and flew relatively harmlessly over the heads of the Federal defenders.
Just past noon, the artillery stopped and Lee's last best hope stepped off from its assembly area in the woods approximately one mile over open fields opposite the Union center. They marched at ordinary quick-time in close order with flags flying and bands playing.
Veterans who watched never forgot the awesome sight as the grim-faced Rebs came on into the teeth of the Federal defense. It's been commonly called "Pickett's Charge" but it wasn't a charge in the usual sense. These men didn't run or jog at double quick time. They simply marched to glory with their muskets at shoulder arms.
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What they saw as they trudged west towards the Federals. The clump or "copse of trees" was the landmark all Rebel eyes were focused on as the point of convergence.
As they marched, they were under the fire of accurate Federal artillery and lost thousands to the deadly shot and shell. They had to break ranks to climb farm fences, but carefully reformed under fire on the other side to continue the attack.
As they closed within 500 yards, the Federal rifled-musketry opened and thousands more fell in agony. Finally, within a couple hundred yards of making contact, those still on their feet broke ranks and began to run at the Federals while whooping and hollering the "Rebel Yell" -- hearkening back to the wild and violent charges of their Celtic and Pict ancestors.
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Lead elements of the Confederate assault force made it to the Federal line and an intense hand-to-hand struggle ensued. Lee's "Johnies" almost pulled-it off, but the Federal's held and Lee had nothing left to reinforce the limited breakthroughs his lead elements had achieved. Thus, the attack withered and was repulsed.
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Brig. General Lewis Armistead led one of Pickett's lead brigades. He was shot down just as he reached a Federal artillery battery positioned on the US line. Armistead's father had been in command at Ft McHenry during the British bombardment during the War of 1812 under "the Star-Spangled Banner." It is worth noting that in this picture, Armistead is depicted backed by several Confederate battle flags. Ordinarily, each of those flags would have been accompanied by around 600 men. As you can see, the regiments to which those flags belonged had been whittled away to very few during the mile-long assault under deadly fire almost every step of the way.
Afterwards, Lee approached Pickett who seemed disoriented having observed the carnage and the shocked survivors streaming back to the relative safety of their pre-assault assembly areas. Lee, worried about a Federal counter-attack is said to have told Pickett, "General, look to your division" to which Pickett replied, "General, I have no division."
Lee's commanders spent the evening gathering up the tired and bloody Confederate forces which he aimed south and back across western Maryland to their base in Virginia. Some modern historians have been critical of the failure of the Federal command to order a counter-attack to cut-off Lee's retreat -- but those nattering nabobs simply don't understand that the Federals were wore slap-out and completely incapable of prosecuting a coordinated counter-attack against Lee who was retiring in good order.
The war would go on two more years and the proud and brave Confederates would soldier on but the South's best hope for victory had bled to death on the farmfields and rocky hillsides of the Gettysburg battlefield. America would thus eventually be re-united in the nineteenth century and poised to be a powerful force for justice and right in the coming world wars of the twentieth.
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My favorite book on "The Charge." It contains a minute-by-minute chronology carefully reconstructed from original accounts of surviving participants and defenders.
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Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
That was downright poetic.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
i've been to gettysburg 4 times and loved it more each time.......everybody should go to those hallowed grounds
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
I walked across that field (from Seminary Ridge to the Angle)...that whole damned field was a freaking kill zone waiting to happen.
Pickett= PWN3D!
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
best fun i ever had at gettysburg was the bike tour i took, there's a little place in the middle of town that rents out mountain bikes
getting up little round top was a bitch
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
A lot of people don't realize just how close the Confederates came to gaining the high ground on Cemetery Hill the first day. They were routing the Union soldiers, but basically ran out of daylight, and that allowed the Unions to regroup. As demonstrated by the slaughter of Pickett's Charge, the high ground was critical at Gettysburg, and if the Confederates had gained control of Cemetery Hill after Day One, the course of history could have literally changed.
God definitely is involved in the affairs of men, especially at the critical moments.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Fred-ricks-burg!
Fred-ricks-burg!
Fred_ricks-burg!
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Pickett's Charge was the defining/turning point of the Civil War. Up until that time the Confederate forces under Stonewall Jackson and others had cleary been the superior military force...at least from a tactical standpoint.
The loss of thousands of Confederate soldiers was a loss the Confederate forces could ill afford.
The 2nd turning point of the Civil War, IMO, was the loss of Stonewall Jackson at the hands of one of his own men.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
frankly i think the actions the day before Picketts charge were more pivotal.....that flank held the line, if not for great men like Joshua Chamberlain, that battled would have been over that day
the 3d day was more desperation than anything, it was already lost
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
[sicemfaninama]damn those imperialist bastards for causing the loss of life of good southern men who did what was right for the country![/sicemfaninama]
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Quote:
Originally Posted by jk the sooner fan
frankly i think the actions the day before Picketts charge were more pivotal.....that flank held the line, if not for great men like Joshua Chamberlain, that battled would have been over that day
the 3d day was more desperation than anything, it was already lost
Agreed. I think a bigger event was when Chamberlain's men on the left were running out of ammo and instead of drawing back, they launched a bayonet charge.
Pickett's Charge is "storied" because it drips with the tragic element of manly dash and valor for a Lost Cause that die-hard confederate romantics feed on and which makes even a few staunch Unionists a little warm & runny (not me, but a few :D ).
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Chamberlains actions are still taught in leadership classes in the Army
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
For my money, the reduction of Vicksburg by US Grant was THE pivotal event of the Late Unpleasantness. Unfettered control of the Mississippi split the Confederacy in half and from that moment on, it was just a matter of time.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Quote:
Originally Posted by jk the sooner fan
Chamberlains actions are still taught in leadership classes in the Army
That part of the battle, the fight for Little Round Top, has always held my interest more than Pickett's charge on my visits to Gettysburg. My Great-Great Grandfather was in the 15th Alabama under Oates that fought against Chamberlain.
It's always surreal to me to walk right over ground that a not terribly distant relative fought over some 140 years ago. Actually, I had 3 relatives in the 15th but he's of my direct line.
Another thing neat about Gettysburg is that they are (or they may have finished by now) in the process of restoring as much of the battlefield to its original state as possible. Meaning they're removing trees where none existed, they got rid of that god-awful observation tower, etc.
My favorite battlefield though is still and always will be Vicksburg followed by Petersburg.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
shiloh is a really cool battlefield to tour
i've been to vicksburg several times, but its so damn big and with all the rolling hills, its more difficult to get a sense of the layout of the battle.....at least when compared to gettysburg and other places
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Great post homey. Hows everything going?
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Quote:
Originally Posted by 85Sooner
Great post homey. Hows everything going?
Thanks for asking. It's going about as well as can be expected. Mrs. Homey told me last night she still catches herself reaching for the phone to call her Mama and tell her something. She was the kind of daughter that called her Mom about every day just to see how she was doing.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Quote:
Originally Posted by Okla-homey
For my money, the reduction of Vicksburg by US Grant was THE pivotal event of the Late Unpleasantness. Unfettered control of the Mississippi split the Confederacy in half and from that moment on, it was just a matter of time.
I disagree. If the Confederates had somehow prevailed at Gettysburg and pushed their advantage(something Lee would have done) I don't think there would have been a Union force large enough to carry out any significant operations in the western theatre....much less lay siege to Vicksburg because Lincoln would have been forced to reinforce troop levels in the North just to protect Northern cities with their manufacturing and industry centers.
Additionally, I think Europe would have been more willing to send fincancial and military aid to the Confederates if they thought Lee and his army had a very good chance of prevailing.....a possibility that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg would have validated.
And finally, a Confederate victory at Gettysburg would have demoralized the civilian population of the North as well as Northern governmental leaders and I really think there would have been a good chance that Lincoln would have been removed from office due to escalating civil unrest/riots in the Northern cities.
I think the siege and capture of Vicksburg was a foregone conclusion and pretty much inevitable.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaninAma
I disagree. If the Confederates had somehow prevailed at Gettysburg and pushed their advantage(something Lee would have done) I don't think there would have been a Union force large enough to carry out any significant operations in the western theatre....much less lay siege to Vicksburg because Lincoln would have been forced to reinforce troop levels in the North just to protect Northern cities with their manufacturing and industry centers.
Additionally, I think Europe would have been more willing to send fincancial and military aid to the Confederates if they thought Lee and his army had a very good chance of prevailing.....a possibility that a Confederate victory at Gettysburg would have validated.
And finally, a Confederate victory at Gettysburg would have demoralized the civilian population of the North as well as Northern governmental leaders and I really think there would have been a good chance that Lincoln would have been removed from office due to escalating civil unrest/riots in the Northern cities.
I think the siege and capture of Vicksburg was a foregone conclusion and pretty much inevitable.
I respectfully disagree. Vicksburg fell because the CS commander (John Pemberton, a transplanted Pennsylvanian) was timid and Grant was audacious.
Also, if Lee had prevailed on July 3 at G'burg, his guys would have been just as spent as they were after their repulse. Further, they were in hostile territory with their lines of supply stretched to the snapping point. I doubt Lee could have pursued a routed US force any better than Meade was able to pursue the defeated ANV. There are limits to what can be expected of human and horse flesh, particularly in summer when your force is already malnourished.
I subscribe to the view that the essence of the operational art of war is to recognize what is logistically possible and to adapt operational planning accordingly. There is no way the ANV could have long run amok in Northern territory. My view is bolstered by the fact that Lee had depleted his artillery ammunition stocks to dangerously low levels in the July 3rd pre-attack cannonade.
Finally, historians generally agree that European recognition was not going to happen because of the slavery thing, especially in the case of the Brits -- and they were the only European power possessed of sufficient naval might to break the Federal blockade, which is the only thing that might have saved the CS.
Queen Victoria, and just as importantly, Prince Albert were foresquare opposed to Confederate recognition because of slavery. Lord Palmerston, the PM was pro-South, but after the CS defeat at Antietam (Sep 1862), he never again urged CS recognition. You may note that resounding Southern victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville of the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863 followed Antietam yet Palmerston was unmoved. I doubt a symbolic and expensive victory at G'burg in the summer of 1863 would have changed Palmerston's opinion having previously written-off the CS almost a year earlier.
Re: Good Morning...Most Storied Event in American Military History
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaninAma
Pickett's Charge was the defining/turning point of the Civil War. Up until that time the Confederate forces under Stonewall Jackson and others had cleary been the superior military force...at least from a tactical standpoint.
The loss of thousands of Confederate soldiers was a loss the Confederate forces could ill afford.
The 2nd turning point of the Civil War, IMO, was the loss of Stonewall Jackson at the hands of one of his own men.
Jackson was already dead at the time of Gettysburg. I believe it was the first major battle after his death two months earlier.