All I remember of the place was standing at the angle and looking cross the field to the tree line and thinking..who the hell was dumb enough to order a charge across that?
We all know who that was.
I dont know if you can walk across that by yourself or not.
That charge was ordered by someone who thought the place you were standing, there at the angle, would be under JEB Stuart’s attack from the rear. Pickett’s Charge was going to be part of a coordinated attack. Instead it was a solo act.
George Custer saw to it that that never coordinated attack from the rear never happened.
But Custer is worthless and the butt of endless jokes. But he saved that battle, and likely the union.
I was there 30 years ago and walked up the field where Pickett’s Charge happened. There weren’t any signs saying it was off limits. I don’t know about now. I felt shaken just being there and trying to imagine the horrific slaughter. Those guys were literal cannon fodder.
Pickett’s Charge was order by Gen Robert E. Lee. And he was following the accepted Napoleonic and British Armytactics of the time. The Civil War was a meeting point of tactics not catching up with technology, the longer range and accuracy of Civil War rifled muskets, compared to the smoothbore British “Brown Bess” and the French “Charleville.” Both of these were not accurate beyond 100 yards, thus one could march a distance before being within lethal range of the enemy.
A Similar meeting point was in WWI when the Machinegun became the new technology and was lethal to the Infantry charging in similar Napoleonic lines.