148 Years Ago Today

While we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, what I feel to be the most sacred of National Holidays, these past few days, July 1-3 also mark another important event in our Nation's history: The Battle Of Gettysburg.

The Battle Of Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War. When the smoke from the battles cleared, more men lay dead than from any other battle in the war. Somewhere between 46,000 and 51,000 men perished.

Until then, Lee and his Army of the Confederacy had given the North the old What-For. Undefeated thus far,  Lee and his Army were in high spirits as they marched northward.

Gettysburg was to be merely a stop over point for Lee's advancing Army. A place to rest and possibly obtain some much needed supplies. Among which was shoes for the many Confederate troops that had, up to this point, marched barefoot.

The ensuing 3 day battle would culminate in what has been called Pickett's Charge. Held 148 years ago today.

On this date in 1863, Pickett's charge was planned for three Confederate divisions, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Pickett, Brig. Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew, and Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble. On farmland owned by a freed slave, three divisions of men were going to march over a mile across open land toward a small stand of trees on the Union Line.

Prior to the start of the charge, Confederate Artillery was supposed to bombard the Union Lines with cannon fire. In what was probably the largest artillery campaign of the war, somewhere between 150 and 170 cannons fired at the Union Forces

It has been said that the sound of cannon fire was so loud that it could be heard in Philadelphia, almost 100 miles away. Unfortunately for the Confederates, though, it had little effect as the rounds were overshooting the Union forces and landing harmlessly well behind them.

The charge began with a line of men over a mile long. It was more of a march, really, as the actual charge was not to take place until the line had come within a couple hundred yards of Union positions. As the Confederates came within about  400 yards of the Union line, the mile-long front shrank to less than half a mile as the men filled in gaps that were created throughout the line as their comrades fell to enemy fire.
As they approached Union lines, they faced canister shot from the Union cannons. (Think #10 tin cans filled with steel ball bearings.) Undeterred they charged forward.

Pickett's Charge was a bloodbath. There is no other way to describe it. As the Confederates fell back, Lee is said to have told General Pickett to rally his division. Pickett responded "General Lee, I have no division". Well over half of his men lay dead in that field.

Although the war would rage on for almost two more years, the south was, in essence, defeated at Gettysburg.