The History of the US Civil War
The Battle of
Gettysburg
(The Third Day of Battle)
Contents:
Introduction | Background and movement to
battle | First day of battle |
Second day of battle | Third day of battle
| Picket's Charge | Cavalry
| Aftermath | References |
Gettysburg
National Military Park
 General Lee wished to renew the attack
on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day:
Longstreet would attack the Federal left, while Ewell attacked Culp's
Hill. [42]
However, before Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a
dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates on Culp's Hill in an
effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates
attacked and the second fight for Culp's Hill ended around 11 a.m.,
after some seven hours of bitter combat.
[43]
Lee was forced to change his plans.
Now Longstreet would command Pickett's Virginia division of his
own First Corps, plus six brigades from Hill's Corps, in an attack
on the Federal II Corps position at the right center of the Union
line on Cemetery Ridge. Prior to the attack, all the artillery the
Confederacy could bring to bear on the Federal positions would
bombard and weaken the enemy's line. [44]
Around 1:00 p.m., from 150 to 170
Confederate guns [45]
began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of
the war.
In order to save valuable ammunition
for the infantry attack that they knew must follow, the Army of
the Potomac's artillery at first did not return the enemy's fire.
After waiting about 15 minutes, 80 or so Federal cannon added to
the din. The Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on
artillery ammunition, and the cannonade did not significantly
affect the Union position. Around 3:00 p.m, the cannon fire
subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline
and advanced the three-quarters of a mile to Cemetery
Ridge in what is known to history as "Pickett's Charge".
Due to fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on
Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and musket and
canister fire from the II Corps as the Confederates approached,
nearly one half of the attackers would not return to their own
lines. Although the Federal line wavered and broke temporarily at
a jog in a low stone fence called the "Angle", just
north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees,
reinforcements rushed into the breach and the Confederate attack
was repulsed. [46]
There were two significant
cavalry engagements on July 3. Stuart was sent to guard the
Confederate left flank and was to be prepared to exploit any
success the infantry might achieve on Cemetery Hill by flanking
the Federal right and hitting their trains and lines of
communications. Three miles east of Gettysburg, in what is now
called "East Cavalry Field",
Stuart's forces collided with Federal cavalry: Brig. Gen. David
McMurtrie Gregg's division and George A. Custer's brigade. A
lengthy mounted battle, including hand-to-hand saber combat,
ensued. Custer's charge, leading the 1st Michigan Cavalry, blunted
the attack by Wade Hampton's brigade, blocking Stuart from
achieving his objectives in the Federal rear. After Pickett's
Charge, Meade ordered Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick to launch a
cavalry attack against the infantry positions of Longstreet's
Corps southwest of Big Round Top. Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth
protested against the futility of such a move, but obeyed orders;
Farnsworth was killed in the attack and his brigade suffered
significant losses. [47]
|
|
42
Harman, p. 63.
43
Pfanz, Culp's Hill, pp. 284-352. Eicher, pp. 540-41.
Coddington, pp. 465-75.
44
Eicher, p. 542. Coddington, pp. 485-86.
45
See discussion of varying gun estimates in Pickett's Charge
article footonote.
46
McPherson, pp. 661-63. Clark, pp. 133-44. Symonds, pp. 214-41.
Eicher, pp. 543-49.
47
Eicher, pp. 549-50. Longacre, pp. 226-31, 240-44. Sauers, p. 836.
Wert, pp. 272-80.
|
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License.