Posted on 07/30/2025 8:46:17 AM PDT by Borges
Aw, man! Now I have to do a web search on George Pickett!
Glad you posted this. Gettysburg was a major big deal. Walked that area and touched deeply. The one I really loved was Longstreet. Have a lot of original bios from that period, including his. Took a leaf from the grave in Maine of Chamberlain. Another amazing man.
I blame Jeb Stuart
Gettysburg - Soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiZ8cTeeeLE
Gettysburg - If It Be Your Will - Leonard Cohen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsu8XpMV5nQ
The Characters in the Gettysburg movie
https://www.iment.com/maida/tv/misc/gettysburg.htm
Deo Vindice!!!
> I blame Jeb Stuart <
Or be thankful for his reckless behavior. I suppose it depended on which side you were on. 🙂
When Stuart finally showed up at Gettysburg, Lee said “Well, General, you are here at last.” It was a rebuke, and it was so understood by Stuart.
(from Wikipedia)
As a young boy I walked the field at Gettysburg. They had old guys dressed in Union or Souther uniforms, who were near to the conflict talke about it to visitors.
It is hard to imagine 10,000 men march into a wall of steel death only to breach the split rail fencing and a few surrender.
General Lee, I have no division.....
Its hard to believe that after Antietam and especially Frericksburg, Lee believed that a mass Napoleon-style assault would work. That’s some stubborn thinking from an otherwise brilliant and innovative commander. After the first day, Longstreet wanted to side-step the Union army and get between it and Washington, forcing the Union troops be the ones to attack. Would probably have worked better. That was the basis of the post-war feud between them.
Deo Vindice!
Pickett outlived Robert E. Lee by almost 5 years. I don’t think he ever forgave Lee for ordered the charge.
We have all enjoyed his fences, ever since.
Here’s a video of veterans attending the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, at Gettysburg. Included was a reenactment of Pickett’s charge.
But this time the advancing old men in gray were embraced by the old men in blue.
https://youtu.be/mVjD2DaB4bY?si=QYLyipBSIS7PrVMM
And Malvern Hill. And South Mountain. That was a big difference between Gran and Lee. Grant never made the same mistake twice.
Custer stopped JEB Stewart. Stewart was supposed to attack from the rear as Pickett conducted his charge.
People like to trash him since the 1960s. But he pretty much saved the union that day.
Grant literally gave him the table the Appomattox surrender was signed on.
And Pickett was a decent man. That disaster at Gettysburg broke him. He never truly recovered.
Jeb’s ego certainly got the best of him but Lee was equally guilty for giving him very vague orders, just like he gave Ewell on the first day. More than one general said of Grant “You could never read his orders without knowing exactly what he wanted you to do.”
Pickett was a significant figure in the so-called Pig War (1859) in Washington state.
Custer was also excellent during the Peninsular campaign.
“I blame Jeb Stuart”
He left Lee blind. Many have stated that Jeb Stuart’s failures there led to the loss. Being realistic, Stuart did: 1) Leave Lee Blind prior to the battle. 2) not disrupt or take the Union Right and lost or left the field to Union Calvary. 3)Did not successfully flank the Union to draw away troops from the heights or re-enforcements. This is true, but probably inconsequential.
Lee didn’t have to fight at Gettysburg, he could have moved and forced the battle on ground of his choosing. Lee didn’t have to order Pickett’s charge on the third day of battle. Lee, even if Pickett’s charge had been successful, lacked the resources to ever take Washington D.C. at the time. So those decisions by Lee made Stuart’s actions inconsequential by the time Pickett’s charge was ordered.
Longstreet knew it, he suffered from not wanting to pass the order to Pickett to charge that day. Pickett’s quote “Sir, I have no Division” sums up the giant waste of men for goal, even if achieved, would not had led to a Confederate Victory. Nearly the same moment the Gettysburg battle was progressing, Grant was nearing completion of his successful siege on Vicksburg. Gettysburg, in my mind, was never as consequential as Grant taking Vicksburg. From then on, the south was split by the Mississippi river, and soon to be split again after the Fall of Atlanta and march to the sea.
In the end, the Western armies of the Union, and Western Generals, really decided the war. The rural troops were the difference makers.
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