Remember what you are fighting for! Your homes, your firesides, and your sweethearts! The formation of the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge. Maj. General George Picketts division was awakened about 3:00 a.m. and marched a few miles, arriving about 8:00 a.m. and falling in line on the Spangler farm on the edge of Seminary Ridge. It formed the southernmost section of the Confederate line of attack, the men of Kempers brigade filing into line with the 24th Virginia leading the way and anchoring the extreme right of the division. The 11th Virginia, followed by the 1st, 7th, and 3rd Virginia, formed on the left of the 24th. Then came Brig. Gen. Richard Garnetts brigade, the 8th Virginia on the right, followed by the 18th, 19th, 28th and 56th Virginia regiments. Armisteads brigade formed behind Garnett, with the 14th Virginia on the right. Then came the 9th, 53rd, 57th and 38th Virginia, the last anchoring the left of Picketts division. In the fields about 200 to 250 yards east of the woods along Seminary Ridge, slightly ahead of Kempers brigade and seemingly disconnected from the main line, lay to brigades from Maj. Gen. Richard Andersons division of Hills Corps. On the left of Andersons short line waited Perrys Florida Brigade, under the command of Col. David Lang: the 2nd, 5th, and 8th Florida. On Langs immediate right were Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcoxs Alabamians, the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 14th Alabama regiments. Some of Wilcoxs men were skeptical of the feasibility of the charge they were about to make. They had lost 50% of their number on July 2nd and believed their commander was bent on losing the rest today. Grumbling accompanied ominous shakes of the head. Wilcox, one said, was determined to sacrifice the whole caboodle. North of Picketts division, packed in behind Seminary Ridge, rested the troops of several brigades. Maj. Gen. Henry Heth had been wounded and his division would go into battle under Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew. They formed with Archers brigade, now commanded by Col. Birkett D. Fry of the 13th Alabama, on its right. Not much remained of this brigade after the struggle on July 1st. With Fry and his regiment were the remnants of the 5th Alabama Battalion and the 1st, 7th, and 14th Tennessee. Next up the line waited the brigade previously commanded by Pettigrew, now led by Col. J.K. Marshall, including the 11th, 26th, 47th and 52nd North Carolina. To their left stood the men of Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Davis Mississippi Brigade, including the 11th, 2nd and 42nd Mississippi and the 55th North Carolina. On the far left of the line, just south of the McMillan farm, was Col. John Brockenbroughs Brigade, the 40th, 47th, and 55th Virginia regiments and the 22nd Virginia Battalion. Further North, behind the brigades of Fry and Pettigrew, were two brigades from Penders division of Hills Corps, now commanded by Maj. Gen. Isaac Trimble. Brig. Gen. Alfred Scales brigade, now commanded by Col. Lee J. Lowrance, included the 13th, 16th, 22nd, 34th and 38th North Carolina regiments. Finally, north of them lay the men of Brig. Gen. James Lanes brigade, the 7th, 18th, 28th, 33rd and 37th North Carolina. As these men moved forward, across the way a Federal officer saw the line move forward and remembered its visual impact: As far as the eye could reach could be seen the advancing troops, their gay war flags fluttering in the gentle summer breeze, while their sabers and bayonets flashed and glistened in the midday sun. Step by step they came, the music and rhythm of their tread resounding upon rock ribbed earth. Every movement expressed determination and resolute defiance, the line moving forward like a victorious giant, confident of power and victory...There is no swaying of the line, no faltering of the step. The advance seems as resistless as the incoming tide. It was a throw of the dice in this supreme moment of the great game of war.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:15:28 +0000
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