 "PICKETT'S CHARGE"
The term “Pickett's Charge” is a Misnomer
No phrase is more absolutely without foundation in fact than the term “Pickett's Charge.” There were in that historic charge 48 regiments and 2 battalions. Of these, General Pickett commanded 15 regiments in the 3 brigades in the right center, composing his division, and no more. There were 11 brigades, and he commanded only 3. The order for the charge was given to General Longstreet, and the official Reports show that he was in sole and actual command of it.
In the right wing of the charge there were 23 regiments, i. e., 4 from Alabama in Wilcox's brigade, and 4 from Florida in Perry's brigade—these 2 brigades being commanded by General Wilcox. To his left, being thus the right center of the charge, was Pickett's division of 3 brigades commanded by Armistead, Garnett, and Kemper. The left of that division was given the line of direction, which was the “clump of trees” on Cemetery Ridge.
In the left wing there were 25 regiments and 2 battalions, i. e., 5 North Carolina regiments (4 in Pettigrew's brigade and one in Davis’); Davis’ Mississippi brigade of 3 Mississippi regiments and one North Carolina regiment; Archer's Tennessee brigade, containing one Alabama regiment and one Alabama battalion, and 3 Tennessee regiments; and Brockenborough's 3 Virginia regiments and one battalion — all these under Pettigrew, commanding Heth's division, and General Heth had been wounded. In the second line of that wing (also practically under Pettigrew) there were the 10 North Carolina regiments of Scales and Lane, under Trimble, making a total of 48 regiments and 2 battalions in the whole line. Pickett's division, in the right center, also marched in two lines—two of his brigades in the front line and one in the second line.
Pickett had no command, as the officers’ reports show, of any of these troops, except the 15 Virginia regiments in his own division.
General Pickett and his staff stopped at the Codori house, 600 yards from the wall, and did not cross the Emmetsburg Pike. The charge from Seminary Ridge, where it started, to the wall on Cemetery Ridge, in front of Pickett, was 1,400 yards. To the wall in front of the left wing, where the North Carolinians went, was 1,480 yards. It is true, General Pettigrew was wounded near the wall, still in command of his division, and that two of Pickett's brigadier generals were killed and the other was wounded, all near the wall, but in stopping at the Codori house, 600 yards behind his line, General Pickett was in rear of the center of his division and in regulation distance.
The fact that he stopped at the Codori house, in rear of his division, has no significance, except that it shows, if any additional proof were needed, that he was in command only of his own division. General Longstreet, who was in command of the entire charge, was in the rear of the center of the charge, and only advanced a short distance with the men, as it was necessary for him to have supervision and oversight of the movements of the entire charge.
[14]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maj. W. M. Robbins, who was for years one of the United States Battlefield Commissioners at Gettysburg, wrote an article, “Longstreet's Assault at Gettysburg,” which is printed in Vol. 5, Clark's Regimental Histories, pp. 101-112, in which he states that it was “Longstreet's Assault” and that Pickett commanded only the 3 brigades of his own division, and, further, that the correspondents of the press at Richmond were responsible for the slander upon the North Carolinians, Tennesseeans, Alabamians, Mississippians, and Brockenborough's Virginians, which composed the left wing. Indeed, Brockenborough's Virginians were on the extreme left, and being fired into on their flank by the 8th Ohio Regiment, was the first brigade on the left to give way. On the right, Wilcox's division, having gone astray, Stannard's Vermont command, especially the 13th and 16th Vermont, fired into the right flank of Kemper's command and broke the force of their charge.
All soldiers know that in that charge all the troops did well, and there is glory enough to go around. All that the North Carolinians, Tennesseeans, Alabamians, Mississippians, and Brockenborough's Virginians have sought to do is not to question in any particular the conduct of the 15 regiments under Pickett's command, but to refute the slander by certain correspondents of the Richmond press at that time, that the 25 regiments and 2 battalions on the left wing did not do their duty.
The following is taken from the returns of the Army of Northern Virginia of our losses at Gettysburg, printed in “44 U. S. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,” pp. 338-346:
Pickett's division: Fifteen Virginia regiments; killed, 214; wounded, 940; prisoners, 1,499.
Heth's division, commanded by Pettigrew: The five North Carolina regiments in the first line lost 229 killed, 1,074 wounded, no prisoners. Adding the two North Carolina brigades of Lane and Scales, the 15 North Carolina regiments which were in the charge lost in the battle of Gettysburg 372 killed, 1,745 wounded, and 110 prisoners, which was a much heavier loss than the 15 Virginia regiments in Pickett's division.
There were also in the left wing Brockenborough's 3 regiments and one battalion from Virginia, which lost 25 killed, 123 wounded, and 148 prisoners. Archer's 3 Tennessee regiments and one regiment and one battalion from Alabama lost 16 killed, 144 wounded, and 717 prisoners; and Davis’ 3 Mississippi regiments (excluding 55th N. C. Regiment in that brigade, already mentioned) lost 141 killed and 548 wounded.
In the whole battle there were 770 North Carolinians killed—nearly twice as many as the 400 from Virginia who were killed.
Address of Chief Justice Walter Clark before N. C. Confederate Veterans Association, Durham, N. C., 24 August 1921.  |
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Linear Mode
