Was it really “Pickett’s charge”? Article 117

On July 3, 1863, in a field near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a force of nearly 12,500 Confederate soldiers began an assault that would cover nearly three quarters of a mile, over undulating but gradually inclining terrain, intending to dislodge a Union force at the top of the ridge overlooking their path.

They failed!

However, their attempt became known as Pickett’s Charge, named for the Confederate General in charge of many of the men. But not all! Recently historians have begun calling the unfortunate event “The Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge” which more accurately describes the leadership of the situation. Too late, however, to deflect the one hundred and fifty years of criticism for the many casualties in the failed assault, which have been directed at General George Edward Pickett. (Offset somewhat by admiration for the courage of his soldiers)

But who was this man, whose name became synonymous with a valiant, but deadly and futile, military action.

George Edward Pickett was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1825, and raised on his family's small plantation nearby. The family owned slaves; however, the eight Pickett children were expected to work. It was not a leisurely existence and George decided early on that he did not want to be a farmer. With his father’s permission, when he was about sixteen years old, he moved to Quincy, Illinois to live with an uncle who was a lawyer to see if that career might better suit him. He did express an interest in becoming a lawyer and his uncle arranged for George to move to Springfield, Illinois to begin an apprenticeship under a qualified lawyer. That was an acceptable way to receive a law license in those days, as an alternative to attending law school. But he was only half interested in learning about the law at best. During his time in Springfield, he did meet a young influential lawyer/legislator named Abraham Lincoln, but the level of their friendship has never been substantiated by either man. However, he also came to know Lincoln’s former law partner, Congressman John Stuart, who nominated George to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He enjoyed that experience, maybe a bit too much, as he was considered a kind of happy-go-lucky young man and earned enough demerits to finish last in his class of 59 in 1846. But the cadet who finishes last, is still commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and his military career started. He fought with distinction in the War with Mexico and then served in the western territories, reaching the rank of Captain. He became known for his elegant uniforms, flowing curled hair, eloquence in speaking, and as a bit of a ladies’ man.

Pickett then served for several years in the Washington Territory and, in 1856, he commanded the construction of Fort Bellingham in what is today Bellingham, Washington. He built a house there which still stands, referred to as the Pickett House, which is the oldest house in Bellingham. He married twice during those years; however, both young women died in childbirth leaving him a widower for nearly fifteen years.

In 1861, with his Virginia heritage weighing on his mind, he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and joined the newly formed Confederate States Army. Based on his prior military experience, he was first commissioned as a Colonel, but then was quickly promoted to Brigadier General in the Army of Northern Virginia, soon to be commanded by Robert E. Lee. He was wounded in June, 1862, but returned to duty in September under the direct command of Major General James Longstreet.

In the spring of 1863, Pickett had become infatuated with Sallie Corbell, a young woman he had met ten years earlier when she was about nine years old, and he now began leaving his post regularly to meet her. Since General Longstreet did not specifically object to his absences at the time, Pickett continued seeing Sallie over the next few months, and they discussed marriage. Later, one of Longstreet’s aides wrote after the war, “I don't think his division benefitted by such carpet-knight doings in the field."

But he would soon be separated from Sallie. In June 1863, General Lee decided to lead an expedition of his Confederate army North into Union territory, toward Gettysburg Pennsylvania.  Some fighting was initiated on June 30th, and major battles erupted on July 1st. General Longstreet positioned General Pickett’s men near the battlefield, but at first not in direct combat.

Until the third and final day.

Pickett was frustrated that his regiment was to be one of the last to be moved into position to confront the Union forces, but he could not publicly complain. Finally, General Longstreet ordered three units, totaling over 12,000 men, including Pickett’s, to jointly form and be prepared to attack a Union position on a strategic ridge of higher ground.

So, on the evening of July 2, Pickett led his men to his assigned position to prepare for a battle the next day. For the prior two days, General Robert E. Lee had ordered heavy artillery barrages to try to force the Union soldiers off the higher ridge; however, the Union troops absorbed the artillery punishment, and never moved back. On July 3, Lee still wanted the position and ordered a ground assault, across a generally open field, for three quarters of a mile, up toward the higher ground, at a place called Cemetery Ridge, an appropriate name for what was to come. Lee ordered General Longstreet to direct the assault by the three divisions formed the prior day, which were under the command of Generals Pettigrew and Trimble, whose men had already seen action for two days, and Pickett's fresh division. Enthusiastically, Pickett yelled to his men, “Up, men, and to your posts! Let no man forget today that you are from Old Virginia."

And the men began their march. Not so much a charge, at least for the first half mile. All three divisions received withering fire from the Union position and the casualties steadily mounted. But those still unharmed, kept moving forward and upward. Eventually only a few men from one brigade made it to the top, and those were quickly repulsed or captured, with their brigade commander mortally wounded and laying among Union soldiers. Some historians have designated that final push by that one brigade as the "High water mark of the Confederacy."

It was a bloodbath. The Confederates had over 6,000 casualties, with over fifty-percent of the three divisions, killed, wounded or captured/missing. But Pickett’s division suffered the worst. Out of about 5,500 men, he lost 224 killed, 1,140 wounded, and over 1,500 missing and/or captured. Generals Trimble and Pettigrew were both wounded and had to withdraw. While some criticized Picket for remaining toward the rear, rather than leading his men to the top, others came to his defense with one Confederate observer writing "He went as far as any Major General, commanding a division, ought to have gone, and farther."

As General Lee realized the result of his order he reportedly said, “It was all my fault." Pickett was angry and distraught and when Lee told Pickett to re-form his division, he is said to have replied, “General Lee, I have no division." Interestingly, Pickett's battle report which he would have given to General Longstreet, was never officially filed and there is suspicion that either Longstreet or Lee had it rejected because of its angry and accusatory tone.

So why did it become known as Pickett’s Charge, after all, General Lee and General Longstreet were superior to Pickett and two other Generals also led their men into that battle? Most historians place the blame on reporters from Virginia who wrote of the courageous charge led by Pickett, one of Virginia’s heroes.  Over time, the episode was glamorized and became a microcosm of the entire Confederate “Lost Cause” mythology.

After the loss at Gettysburg, Pickett wrote to his fiancée “Well, it is all over now. The battle is lost, and many of us are prisoners, many are dead, many wounded, bleeding and dying. Your Soldier lives and mourns and but for you, my darling, he would rather, a million times over, be back there with his dead, to sleep for all time in an unknown grave.”

General Pickett, however, still had a war to fight. And his next engagement was neither glamorous nor heroic. Pickett was ordered to capture the town of New Bern in North Carolina which was occupied by the Union. Pickett and his men failed to liberate the town and, as they retreated, they encountered a group of twenty-two southerners, some wearing Union clothing. Quickly deciding they were deserters, he ordered them all executed. One boy was only fifteen. It turned out, Pickett was wrong. The men were never in the Confederate Army (a necessary element of desertion) and were instead former members of the North Carolina Home Guard, who had refused to fight against the United States.

With a few weeks between battles, Pickett returned to Sallie and the two would marry. She was nearing twenty and he was thirty-eight; however, after the wedding, they did not see much of each other until the war ended. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1875 and she never remarried. But, in 1865, Pickett’s war was about over.

General Pickett surrendered with his men as part of Robert E. Lee’s Army on April 12, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. He received a general pardon from General Grant, along with the 25,000 other Confederate soldiers, but his troubles were not over. As news spread of the executions at New Bern, investigations began, and Pickett took his family and fled to Canada to avoid potential prosecution. After a year, General Grant, who was urging the U.S. congress and new President Johnson to welcome former Confederates back into the fold, was instrumental in convincing Pickett to return home. And there was never any prosecution.

A year before his death, at the urging of former General and former President Grant, The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution which read in part, "to remove the political disabilities of George E. Pickett of Virginia" thus clarifying his full pardon.

Long after the war ended and her husband had died, an interesting story was told by Pickett’s widow, Sallie. She wrote that, when Abraham Lincoln went into Richmond, Virginia, on April 4, 1865, after the fall of that Confederate Capital, he visited her and her children and inquired about “His old friend from Illinois.” Most Lincoln scholars do not believe it happened, because Lincoln’s visit there was so well documented. Others, however, are not so sure because it sounds much like something Lincoln would do. Mrs. Pickett also wrote a biography of her husband which was so lavishly favorable that most historians will not use it as a reference. However, her book and stories cemented Pickett’s reputation among southern generations who latched on to her version of a heroic, focused, and dedicated Confederate officer.

Pickett always regretted the men he lost at Gettysburg and implied that he blamed General Robert E. Lee for forcing the assault at Cemetery Ridge, despite hearing misgivings by General Longstreet that the uphill trek was too risky. Pickett, complained once "That old man destroyed my division."

But, when asked why Pickett's Charge failed, Pickett frequently replied, "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."