The Rebels 

    GEORGE E. PICKETT

    The man who’s name that will be forever attached to the great blunder that was the final attack at Gettysburg, and possibly even the last important attack of the entire Civil War, had really little to do with its organization. All George E. Pickett was assigned to do was get his troops from one end of the field to the other, up and over the Union forces. It would be Pickett’s singular most glorious endeavor, and should he succeed his name would become legendary, if not quite as acclaimed as his superiors. Having grown up in Virginia, as so many generals of the Confederacy did, Pickett entered West Point Academy at age seventeen and graduated dead last in the class of 1842 in sharp contrast to Lee’s significantly higher placement in his graduating year. Once let loose on the field of battle, Pickett proved his mettle at the Battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican War and earned himself brevet promotion. When the South seceded and the Civil War began, Pickett, like many of his fellow Virginians defected to fight for their homeland, and in January of 1862 was appointed brigadier general. After a handful of engagements at the outset of the war, Pickett was promoted to major general, thus fatefully being placed in Longstreet’s corps. As a member of this corps, Pickett was present at the battle of Fredericksburg where he witnessed a monumental victory for the confederate cause, but also the opposite of what would happen to his own men about a year and a half later. When the Battle of Gettysburg broke out, Pickett’s men did not arrive until late in the day on July second, and as such were fresh for battle on the third. Pickett was chosen to provide most of the support for an assault on Cemetery ridge, but he was not the man whom the other soldiers were to follow, that distinction was given to Birkett D. Fry’s brigade.

 

     Robert E. Lee

     Born in 1807 to Colonel Henry Lee who had served as a cavalry officer in the American Revolution, Robert E. Lee had military prowess in his veins. This military aptitude was proven in 1829 when Lee graduated from West Point Military Academy second in his class. On the field of conquest Lee served under General Winfield Scott in the Mexican War in which he “preformed a very important service” as a scout for General John E. Wool (Long, A.L. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee. Secaucus: The Blue and Grey Press, 1983, 49). Later, in October of 1859, Lee was charged with the task of ending John Brown’s attempted abolitionist raid at Harper’s Ferry, an order he carried out with the utmost promptness and efficiency. When the Union split, Lee found himself at an impasse: the military he had served with for his entire thirty six year career wanted him to be their commander. While honored by the request, Lee turned it down and sided with his native Virginia, becoming the commander of the Army of North Virginia in May of 1862. Lee quickly proved his worth to the rebel cause with the Seven Days Battles in the summer of that same year. Following this victory Lee would go on to lead yet another Confederate triumph at Second Manassas later that same summer. At the battle of Antietam Lee succeeded by the skin of his teeth, but would compensate with crushing victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville where demonstrated his cunning like never before as he overcame two to one odds and managed to outflank the Union forces. It was on the heels of this grand accomplishment that Lee decided to take the fight to the enemy.

 

 

 

PETTIGREW AND TRIMBLE

     Pickett was not alone in his assault of Cemetery Ridge. As acting general, Pickett had control over an estimated fifteen thousand Confederate men, but this vast number of soldiers was broken down into brigades and regiments each with their respective commanding officers. Pickett himself came from under Longsreet’s command along with two other divisions that consisted of Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew and Major General Isaac R. Trimble. Of these divisions, approximately six thousand troops were from Pickett’s own division, the rest were lead by Petttigrew and Trimble. These two men, Pettigrew and Trimble, had both only recently been instated as commanding officers. Pettigrew had been in his position for only a single day as he had replaced Brigadier General Henry Heth on July first due to a head wound sustained by Heth. Pettigrew had served under Heth up to that point in the battle, and it was Heth who had first marched into Gettysburg supposedly on the hunt for a store of fresh shoes desperately needed for his men, who were weary and worn. Despite having been recently instated as Brigadier General, Pettigrew was very well educated, and indeed perhaps the most well rounded character on the field of battle that day:

 

A scholar in Greek and Hebrew, fluent as well in most of the modern languages of Europe, he had made the best grades ever recorded at the University of North Carolina, where he also excelled in fencing, boxing and the single stick, then had traveled the continent and written a book on what he had seen before returning to settle down to a brilliant legal career, only to have it interrupted by the war and the experience of being left for dead on the field of Seven Pines (Foot, Stars in their Courses, 189).

   

     All of his life’s experiences could only partially prepare Pettigrew for the intense conflict that awaited him. Just before his men advanced, Pettigrew is recalled as yelling to the commander of the North Carolinians, “Now, colonel, for the the honor of the good old North State, forward!” (Stewart, Pickett’s Charge, 171). Pettigrew would live through the attack to see the following day, his thirty-fifth birthday. The other division under Longstreet’s careful eye was that of Isaac Trimble. Following about one hundred yards behind Pickett’s men , Trimble led two brigades consisting of men from Brigadier General James H. Lane, and Colonel W. Lee Lowrance. Trimble, like so many others that day, was leading men with whom he had never before served. Due to the tenacity of the battle, along with the frequent use on both sides of long range cannon, officers were going down left and right, and their shoes had to be filled as soon as possible to retain the chain of command. Promotions were abundant. That said, Trimble had a fair amount of experience under his belt. At sixty one years old , Trimble was oldest Confederate serving at Gettysburg, and the second oldest between the two sides, that title of oldest went to the sixty two year old Union officer George S. Greene, who’s soldiers dubbed him “Old Man Greene”. In addition, Trimble had graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1822. Earlier in the war Trimble fought at the Battle of Antietam during which he lost more than a third of his men, and would later sustain a severe leg wound at the second Battle of Bull Run from which he would recover just in time to enter the fray at Gettysburg.