Pickett's charge culminates at the bloody angle
...What you see in the distance�the monument of Robert E. Lee on his horse
Traveler�is the position where Lee viewed the action on that July 3rd (in that
little wooded cul-de-sac). The Confederates fire from this position for nearly
two hours (1:00-3:00 PM) with 152 Confederate cannons that are pushed out of the
tree line that you see in front of you. From the Union side, 122 cannons answer.
That's 274 cannons firing at each other for nearly two hours. At three o'clock
the guns grow silent. Ten minutes later, 13,000-15,000 Confederates emerge from
the tree line in front of you. Their battle line stretches well over a mile
(literally from horizon to horizon, from right to left). The reason we have a
discrepancy in the numbers is because there are about 13,000 Confederates who
converge to attack this position. If we add the two brigades supporting George
Pickett's division on the right flank (David Lang's Florida brigade and Cadmus
Wilcox's Alabama brigade), then there are 15,000 men...
|
