M.A. Kleen

Pickett’s Charge, or, as some call it, the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge, the “high-water mark of the Confederacy,” has assumed an almost mythical place in Civil War history. The grand assault on July 3, 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, has been immortalized in film, literature, and popular memory. But much of what is commonly believed about the charge, or assumed to be true, has been disputed by historians for decades. Join me as I blow away the fog of popular memory to uncover the unvarnished truth in my latest article for Emerging Civil War.

The neat rows advanced like a gray tide crashing against the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, Armistead’s hat raised high on his sword. Then came the desperate struggle at the stone wall, a moment when the fate of the Civil War itself seemed to hang in the balance, before the shattered tide finally broke and…

Pickett’s Charge Reconsidered