‘Such a Charge’
Oct 22, 2019
4 minutes
By D. Scott Hartwig
IT IS FREQUENTLY PRESUMED that Pickett’s Charge, on July 3, 1863, was doomed to defeat before a single cannon opened fire or a Confederate soldier stepped off toward Cemetery Ridge. No question, Lee’s plan for a massive frontal assault against the Union center on Gettysburg’s third day was a huge gamble that might cost him dearly in casualties. Two days earlier, however, he had watched his soldiers successfully execute a frontal assault on Seminary Ridge. The scale was smaller, but the risks were similar.
The attack on Seminary Ridge by Maj. Gen. Dorsey Pender’s troops, of A.P. Hill’s
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