![]() ![]() ![]() Approximately 12,500 men in nine infantry brigades advanced over open fields for three-quarters of a mile (1200 m) under heavy Union artillery and rifle fire. The infantry assault was preceded by a massive artillery bombardment that was meant to soften up the Union defense and silence its artillery, but it was largely ineffective. However, on the night of July 2, Meade correctly predicted to General John Gibbon, after a council of war, that Lee would attack the center of his lines the following morning and reinforced that area with additional soldiers and artillery. Lee believed that, after Confederate attacks on both the left and right flanks of the Union lines on July 2, Meade would concentrate his defenses there to the detriment of his center. Lee determined to attack at that point, and the execution was assigned to Longstreet. Perceiving that by forcing the Federal lines at that point and turning toward Cemetery Hill would be taken in flank and the remainder would be neutralized. . where, sloping westward, formed the depression through which the Emmitsburg road passes. His military secretary, Armistead Lindsay Long, described Lee's thinking: Pickett's Charge was part of Lee's "general plan" to take Cemetery Hill and the network of roads it commanded. The charge is popularly named after Major General George Pickett, one of three Confederate generals (all under the command of Lieutenant General James Longstreet) who led the assault. Suffering from a lack of preparation and problems from the onset, the attack was a costly mistake that decisively ended Lee's invasion of the north and forced a retreat back to Virginia. Confederate troops made a frontal assault toward the center of Union lines, ultimately being repulsed with heavy casualties. Meade's Union positions on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during the Civil War. Pickett's Charge (July 3, 1863), also known as the Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge, was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate General Robert E. ![]()
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