Waterloo50
Major
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2015
- Location
- England
Mention the name George E Pickett and the first thing that springs to mind is the failed attack at Gettysburg.
Like many of us here I’ve examined that famous/infamous charge and I’m left wondering what could have been done differently to make it a success, was it even possible for the outcome to have been different. I’d like to know what others think, if I could send you back in time and assuming that Lee would act on your advice, what would you have told him was required to break through the Union defences...oh, by the way, telling Lee not to go ahead with an attack isn’t an option.
For those who want a quick overview of how things originally played out here’s a quick timeline, it’s not exhaustive by any means but it gives a rough idea on how things unfolded.
1:00pm 152 Confederate cannons are pushed out of the tree line and fire on the Union centre, 122 Union cannons respond, the firing last for 2 hours.
3:00pm the cannon fire falls silent.
3:10pm 14000 Confederate troops step out of the tree line, the confederate line is almost a mile in length, the confederate line steps out in perfect order, it was 87 degrees and humid so the line moved slowly.
122 Union cannon open up on the confederate line.
The Confederate line has to cross open ground for about a mile to make it to the Union line, however, they have to cross the Emmitsburg road which is lined either side by two 5 foot tall fences.
At the Union line, approximately 6000 men are told to hold fire until the confederate line reaches the road, meanwhile, 25 Union cannon are being loaded with canister shot.
When the confederate line or what’s left it reaches the road, all hell breaks lose and the confederate line starts to falter, so much so that they go to ground, the bodies are falling and the road becomes a scene of complete carnage, those that have managed to push on meet the first line of union defences at the West wall, the confederate line clashes with 1600 union soldiers, in this clash the Union suffers 500 casualties and approximately 1100 union men withdraw to the main union line, the confederate line loses momentum and on seeing this the union swing around and box in those that had made it to the west wall.
On seeing the line falter, brigadier general Armistead pushes through the line and try’s to encourage the men to keep moving, again the confederate line is hammered by the union main line.
In total the confederate line took about 50 minutes to cross and withdraw across the field, they suffered a loss of 6,800 men.
I fail to see what could have been done differently, does anyone have any theories about what was needed to break the Union line?
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