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Description
"General Pickett, sir, you must look to your division."

"General Lee, I have no division!"

youtu.be/rGv1VKAybcI

Today we bring you the continuation to our previous picture, this time fast-forwarding to the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3rd 1863.

Thanks to the actions of Union Commander John Buford and his cavalry two days prior, the Confederate forces were unable to prevent Union General George Meade from arriving and occupying the strategic point known and Cemetery Hill, from which he commanded a vital network of roads that led into and out of the battlefield.

Eager to take this point, Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered an assault to be conducted on what he perceived to be a weak point in the Union lines, one that he hoped would be broken through a direct attack.

That morning, after a lengthy bombardment to soften up the Union defenses, over 12,500 Confederate infantry led by Major General George Pickett advanced across three-quarters of a mile of open ground to reach their objective. It was only when they were in the open that they realized, to their horror, that the bombardment had been largely ineffective. The division would soon receive a torrent of cannon and rifle fire, with those men who survived long enough to reach the walls where the Union had dug in being quickly struck down in hand-to-hand combat. In the end, the division suffered 50% casualties and the assault was an utter failure.

After such disasterous losses, Lee was forced to concede victory and retreated from Gettysburg. He would be unable to conduct any further offensives onto Northern soil for the rest of the war.

The event would be known henceforth as "Pickett's Charge" and the furthest point that was reached by the Confederates is now immortalized as the "High-water mark of the Confederacy".

Description
"General Pickett, sir, you must look to your division."

"General Lee, I have no division!"

youtu.be/rGv1VKAybcI

Today we bring you the continuation to our previous picture, this time fast-forwarding to the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3rd 1863.

Thanks to the actions of Union Commander John Buford and his cavalry two days prior, the Confederate forces were unable to prevent Union General George Meade from arriving and occupying the strategic point known and Cemetery Hill, from which he commanded a vital network of roads that led into and out of the battlefield.

Eager to take this point, Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered an assault to be conducted on what he perceived to be a weak point in the Union lines, one that he hoped would be broken through a direct attack.

That morning, after a lengthy bombardment to soften up the Union defenses, over 12,500 Confederate infantry led by Major General George Pickett advanced across three-quarters of a mile of open ground to reach their objective. It was only when they were in the open that they realized, to their horror, that the bombardment had been largely ineffective. The division would soon receive a torrent of cannon and rifle fire, with those men who survived long enough to reach the walls where the Union had dug in being quickly struck down in hand-to-hand combat. In the end, the division suffered 50% casualties and the assault was an utter failure.

After such disasterous losses, Lee was forced to concede victory and retreated from Gettysburg. He would be unable to conduct any further offensives onto Northern soil for the rest of the war.

The event would be known henceforth as "Pickett's Charge" and the furthest point that was reached by the Confederates is now immortalized as the "High-water mark of the Confederacy".