George Pickett seemed to be a good enough brigade commander after taking command of
Cocke's brigade of Virginians in January 1862. His brigade was composed of veterans of
the fighting at First Manassas that had performed well, taking a battery during that battle.
Pickett was aggressive leading this brigade at Williamsburg and Seven Pines and earned praise
from his superiors in the chain of command.
At Gaines Mill, he was wounded leading the first of two charges his brigade made that
broke Dan Butterfield's line. He missed the rest of the fighting during the Seven Days
campaign, Second Manassas, and Antietam returning to duty in October 1862. Soon
after he was appointed to division command. His division was not heavily involved in
the fighting at Fredericksburg and missed Chancellorsville when they were detached
with Longstreet to Suffolk during that time period.
When his chance to show what he could do in charge of a division finally came at
Gettysburg, he handled his division adequately during the disastrous charge that bears
his name. After the battle, he was visibly upset at the terrible casualties he had suffered
and when he was asked by General Lee to reform his division, he stated "General, I have
no division."
After several months of recovery, he and his division were assigned to Eastern North
Carolina in the Spring of 1864. Here he was in overall command of a force that captured
Plymouth, N.C. in conjunction with Robert Hoke and help from the C.S.S. Albemarle,
an ironclad warship. He handled his division adequately although a lot of credit for the
limited Confederate success was due to Robert Hoke's performance.
Here, controversy rears it's ugly head as it will again in Pickett's career. Several N.C.
soldiers were captured who had fought for the Union forces and Pickett was livid when
he found out about this. He ordered a court marshal that resulted in the hanging of
several of these southerners who had fought against his forces. Pickett's justification
for his actions was that these men were deserters who had become traitors against
the Confederacy. This made him a marked man in the eyes of Federal officials for
possible war crimes charges after the war.
Pickett's division went on to fight well against Butler on the Peninsula, effectively
bottling his forces up there for most of 1864. His division then was routed at Five
Forks in April 1865. Pickett had been attending a party with other Confederate
officers when his men were attacked and did not get into action until the fight was
practically finished and his command was a shambles. This dereliction of duty was
unforgivable in the eyes of many of his peers and his career was practically finished.
All in all, I think he showed promise as a brigade commander, but he was not the best
choice for division command, being impulsive and lacking a cool head and self control
during crucial moments in military actions. It took a while to get to my opinion and
I apologize for getting long winded but I thought a brief summary of Pickett's career
might be helpful.