Gettysburg (1863): The Real Turning Point & Pickett's Charge

Military History: The US Civil War

Chapter 6 · Gettysburg (1863): The Real Turning Point & Pickett's Charge

After Antietam (Chapter 5), Lee's army went on to win two of its most famous victories. Confident that his men could beat any Union army, Lee invaded the North a second time in summer 1863. Over three days in July, in and around a Pennsylvania market town, the largest battle ever fought in North America ended that confidence for good.

Lee at His Peak

13 December 1862 Fredericksburg: Burnside, McClellan's replacement, throws wave after wave of attacks against Confederates on the high ground of Marye's Heights. It's one of the most one-sided Union defeats of the war.
30 April – 6 May 1863 Chancellorsville: facing Joseph Hooker's much larger army, Lee splits his own force and sends Jackson on a flank march that routs the Union right. It's often called Lee's greatest victory.
2 May 1863 Jackson is accidentally shot by his own men in the dark at Chancellorsville. He dies of pneumonia on 10 May — a loss Lee felt for the rest of the war.
June 1863 Lee marches north through the Shenandoah Valley into Pennsylvania. On 28 June Lincoln replaces Hooker with George G. Meade, only three days before the battle.

Lee's Missing "Eyes" Lee's cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart, was off on a long raid around the Union army and out of contact for days. Without his cavalry, Lee didn't know where the Union army was until the fighting had already begun.

The Two Armies

	Union (Meade)	Confederate (Lee)
Soldiers	About 94,000–104,000	About 65,000–80,000
Guns	About 360	About 270
Casualties (killed, wounded, missing)	About 23,000	About 23,000–28,000

Day 1: 1 July — A Meeting Nobody Planned

Neither commander chose Gettysburg. It was a crossroads town where ten roads met, so both armies' columns converged on it. Union cavalry under John Buford dismounted west of town and held off the leading Confederate infantry long enough for Union infantry to arrive.

By the afternoon, more Confederate divisions arrived from the north, and the Union line collapsed back through the town. But the retreating troops rallied on high ground south of Gettysburg: Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge. Lee told his corps commander Richard Ewell to take Cemetery Hill "if practicable"; Ewell decided it wasn't, and the Union kept the heights overnight.

The "Fishhook" By the morning of 2 July the Union line ran in a curved shape like a fishhook: from Culp's Hill, round Cemetery Hill, and down Cemetery Ridge toward two hills called Round Top and Little Round Top. Because it was curved, Meade could move troops across the inside of the curve quickly, while Lee's longer line around the outside had to march much farther.

Day 2: 2 July — Attacks on Both Flanks

Lee ordered James Longstreet to attack the Union left. Longstreet, who preferred moving around the Union army rather than attacking it head-on, took most of the day getting into position.

Sickles Moves Forward

Union General Daniel Sickles, without orders, moved his corps forward off Cemetery Ridge to higher ground at a Peach Orchard. It exposed his men, and they were badly mauled in fighting through the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, and a rocky area called Devil's Den.

Little Round Top

This hill overlooked the whole Union line. Union engineer Gouverneur Warren saw it was undefended and got troops rushed onto it minutes before Confederates arrived. At the far end of the line, the 20th Maine under Colonel Joshua Chamberlain ended a desperate fight with a downhill bayonet charge.

The Other End

Evening Confederate attacks on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill, on the Union right, came close in places but were driven off.

Why Chamberlain Is So Famous The 20th Maine's defence was real and important. But its fame owes a lot to Michael Shaara's 1974 novel The Killer Angels and the 1993 film Gettysburg. Several other regiments on Little Round Top fought just as hard; Colonel Strong Vincent, who commanded the brigade that held the hill, was killed there. Popular memory tends to settle on one story and one hero.

Day 3: 3 July — Pickett's Charge

Having attacked both flanks, Lee decided to strike the Union centre on Cemetery Ridge. Longstreet argued against it. Lee went ahead.

About 1:00 p.m. Around 150 Confederate guns open the largest artillery bombardment of the war. Much of it overshoots the Union line on the ridge.
About 3:00 p.m. Roughly 12,500 Confederate infantry step out of the woods and march across about a mile of open fields toward the ridge.
The advance Union artillery and then rifle fire tear into the lines. A few hundred men reach the Union position at a stone wall near a clump of trees; they are quickly killed, captured, or driven back.
The result Around half of the attackers become casualties. Lee meets the survivors and tells them it was all his fault.

Pickett Wasn't the Only General The attack is named after George Pickett, whose Virginia division took part, but more than half the troops came from divisions under J. Johnston Pettigrew and Isaac Trimble. Historians often call it the Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge. Pickett's name stuck partly because Virginian newspapers and veterans told the story first.

Rifles Against Open Ground Chapter 1 noted that rifled weapons outran the tactics of the day. Pickett's Charge is the clearest example in this course: a mile-long advance in the open against an entrenched enemy with artillery and rifles. The same lesson had been taught at Fredericksburg, in reverse, seven months earlier.

After the Battle

Lee Retreats

On 4 July, in heavy rain, Lee began withdrawing to Virginia with a wagon train of wounded many miles long. Meade followed cautiously; Lincoln was deeply frustrated that Lee's army escaped across the Potomac.

The Same Day in the West

Also on 4 July, the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg surrendered to Grant — the subject of Chapter 7. Together, the two events marked the moment the war turned decisively.

The Gettysburg Address

On 19 November 1863, at the dedication of a national cemetery for the Union dead, Lincoln gave a speech of about 270 words, lasting only a couple of minutes. It reframed the war as a test of whether government "of the people, by the people, for the people" could survive.

"The High-Water Mark of the Confederacy" The spot where Pickett's men briefly reached the Union line is often called the Confederacy's "high-water mark." The phrase was popularised after the war. Many historians argue the Confederacy's real military peak came earlier, or that the war was being decided more in the West, at places like Vicksburg, than in any single Eastern battle. Gettysburg was a real turning point in the East — but not the whole story.

Questions to Sit With

Lee had beaten larger Union armies before. What was different at Gettysburg?

Why might a novel and a film shape our memory of a battle more than historians do? Is that a problem?

Lee took responsibility for Pickett's Charge immediately. Why do you think later Confederate writers tried to blame Longstreet instead?

Quick Reference — Chapter 6

Before Gettysburg: Union defeats at Fredericksburg (December 1862) and Chancellorsville (May 1863); Jackson died after being shot by his own men
Meade replaced Hooker on 28 June 1863; Stuart's cavalry was away, leaving Lee short of information
Gettysburg, 1–3 July 1863: about 94,000–104,000 Union vs 65,000–80,000 Confederate; 46,000–51,000 total casualties, the largest battle in North America
Day 1: Buford's cavalry delayed the Confederates; the Union fell back to Cemetery Hill and Ridge, forming the "fishhook" line
Day 2: Sickles' exposed advance; Little Round Top held (20th Maine and others); attacks on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill repulsed
Day 3: Pickett's (Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble) Charge of about 12,500 men lost around half; Lee retreated on 4 July, the same day Vicksburg fell
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (19 November 1863) was about 270 words; the "high-water mark" label came later and is debated

What's Next

Chapter 7: The Vicksburg Campaign (1863): Grant's Real Siege & Control of the Mississippi.