Line of Fire (24/41) : The Battle of Gettysburg "1863"
For educational purposes
The battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the American Civil War; at the end of three days of ferocious fighting, all hopes of overall victory for the Confederacy had disappeared.
But the Union triumph came at a terrible price, for their losses all but matched those of the Confederates.
Names such as The Peach Orchard, Little Round Top and Cemetary Ridge wrote themselves large in American folklore the dreadful bloodshed of the 1st to 3rd of July 1863 has never been forgotten.
The battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the American Civil War; at the end of three days of ferocious fighting, all hopes of overall victory for the Confederacy had disappeared.
But the Union triumph came at a terrible price, for their losses all but matched those of the Confederates.
Names such as The Peach Orchard, Little Round Top and Cemetary Ridge wrote themselves large in American folklore the dreadful bloodshed of the 1st to 3rd of July 1863 has never been forgotten.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00You
00:30Vast cumuli of cloud floated over the strife.
00:58Men and horses lay thickly dead or horribly mutilated upon the ground.
01:05Constantly, from out of the white pall of vapour, issued wounded and mangled men.
01:22Those were the words of the London Times describing the final day of fighting at the Battle of
01:27Gettysburg, perhaps the most famous single event in American military history.
01:42We're here on the Gettysburg battlefield in the Gettysburg National Military Park.
01:48Here at Gettysburg was one of the most significant battles in the history of our country and
01:54certainly one of its greatest events.
01:59July 3rd, 1863 was the day that saw the Confederate forces of General Robert E. Lee reach their
02:07high water mark, the northernmost extremity grasped by the South during the war.
02:18This point was reached as the rebel soldiers attempted a near suicidal assault upon Federal
02:24positions on Cemetery Ridge, an action known to posterity as Pickett's Charge.
02:39After the war, General Lee said that in 1863 he either had to dig in and defend Richmond
02:50or invade Pennsylvania and bring the Union Army to battle and defeat it in the field.
02:57And in the event, General Lee preferred to go on the operational offensive.
03:04Lee's invasion of the North in the summer of 1863 was really undertaken with high hopes
03:11that it would lead to an embarrassing defeat for the Union and perhaps international recognition
03:18of the Confederacy.
03:21What he's hoping is that Paris and London will actually not necessarily intervene on
03:27behalf of the Confederacy, but certainly recognize the Confederacy and this will be the first
03:33step towards perhaps intervention.
03:40The preceding two years of war had seen a number of great southern victories, particularly
03:45under the inspired leadership of General Robert E. Lee, who gave the North a mighty fright
03:51when he invaded Pennsylvania in 1862.
03:55He'd been offered command of the Union forces in April 1861 and he'd actually spent some
04:02time thinking about where his real loyalties lay and he decided, as everyone knows, to
04:07go with his state, the state of Virginia, rather than the Union.
04:10But he did so with a very, very heavy heart indeed, because his career in the United States
04:15Army had been illustrious.
04:18He proved himself to be a true commander, that is to say, he takes the decisions, motivates
04:24his subordinates and his men, and of course, by the end of the war, the soldiers are fighting
04:29for him just as much, if not more, than for their cause.
04:34On the strategic front, General Lee was only too aware of the main difficulty facing the
04:40Confederates in 1863.
04:44Lee didn't believe for one second that he could actually defeat northern armies in open
04:50battle consistently.
04:53Victory for the Confederacy was not so much a victory in the war, but wearing down of
04:57northern support for the war.
05:00So the Confederates sought to win battles and succeed in campaigns in order to lose
05:09President Lincoln and the Republican Party votes.
05:13With this in mind, he devised a bold strategy for the summer campaign of 1863, to invade
05:21the North with his Army of Northern Virginia, smash the Union Army, and force peace by threatening
05:27Washington.
05:30By this stage, the Union blockade was really beginning to strangle the Confederacy.
05:34They were desperately short of men and ammunition and above all supplies, and it's even supplies
05:41of rudimentary things like shoes, which is beginning to affect the Confederate armies.
05:47With his army foraging in Union territory, it would also take pressure off hard-pressed
05:53Virginian resources.
05:57By advancing into Maryland over the Potomac River, Lee would remove his army.
06:03Indeed, the theater of war would be transferred into Maryland and Pennsylvania, and Virginia
06:08will save the depredations of war which he'd endured for two years.
06:14And of course, logistically, these areas are rich.
06:18They have rural areas with plenty of food.
06:24In the summer of 1863, Lee had some reasons for confidence.
06:29Pride in Southern arms was at its absolute zenith.
06:34The Army of Northern Virginia reached a peak of high spirits, and there was no better demonstration
06:40of this martial self-assurance than the General Cavalry Review, staged by the 10,000 men of
06:47Jeb Stuart's Cavalry Corps on June 7, 1863.
06:56General Stuart had the three best Confederate cavalry brigades under his command.
07:03They were very good at cavalry tasks.
07:07They were very concentrated geographically under Stuart's control, and they were very
07:15capable.
07:16They relied on a long tradition in the southern United States of militia cavalry, and as a
07:25result they had some very good people with long cavalry experience to draw on.
07:33They do say that pride comes before a fall.
07:36This display was actually the second grand parade which Stuart had organized in two days.
07:44You have to ask yourself, what on earth were they doing?
07:48Why did Lee allow Stuart to spend his time effectively preening himself with these two
07:54great military parades when the Union army is fairly close by and active?
08:01It's very close to a dereliction of duty, particularly when you compare the laissez-faire
08:07laid-back attitude of the Confederate cavalry to the highly practical and professional attitude
08:14of the U.S. cavalry, and you were to see what happens at Brandy Station.
08:20The ostentatious show of June 5 did not go unmissed by the Federal Intelligence Network.
08:32John Buford, the commander of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, only 12 miles away at Warrington
08:38Junction, filed this fairly accurate report on June 5.
08:44All of the available cavalry of the Confederacy is in Culpeper County.
08:49Stuart, the two Lees, Robertson, Jenkins, and Jones are all there.
08:59Supported by Buford's intelligence on June 9, only two days after the Stuarts' review,
09:05the newly formed U.S. Cavalry Corps under General Alfred Pleasanton crossed the Rappahannock
09:11River and for the first time fought toe-to-toe with Stuart's vaunted cavalry.
09:21This was the famous Battle of Brandy Station, and it was to prove a near-run thing.
09:42The battle which developed was going to be the largest cavalry battle in American history.
09:47It begins with regiments simply blundering into each other and attempting to fight on
09:51horseback.
09:52And so what happens is that a great cavalry melee develops.
09:5610,000 men on either side, 20,000 horsemen swirling around the area of Brandy Station.
10:12In the end, the superior experience of the rebel cavalry won out, and the Yankees were
10:18rebuffed, but not until after Stuart and his command had received a severe setback.
10:26Brandy Station is a shock for the South in a twofold manner, in the sense that Stuart
10:32was caught napping for once and was forced to respond to Union moves.
10:38And secondly, natural experience of the battle seemed to indicate that the Union cavalry
10:42had held their own, and that J. F. Stuart's hitherto rather exaggerated reputation, invincible
10:51reputation, was rather unfounded.
10:57The Union cavalry proved that it was now able to stand toe-to-toe against its Confederate
11:03counterparts and really fight, if not quite on equal terms, then certainly nearly equal
11:09terms.
11:10The myth of the Southern Cavalier, then, really took a significant dent.
11:16In late June, 1863, once more eager to draw the Union army away from Virginian soil, Lee
11:24gathered all his forces together for another invasion of the North.
11:33The proud army of Northern Virginia, 65,000 strong, set off to capture Washington and
11:40so end the war.
11:43Against them were more than 150,000 troops who could be brought to bear, so Lee needed
11:49to have his wits about him.
11:52The worst risk was a long-pitched battle against superior forces.
11:59But this time, their beloved leader would lose his touch.
12:03In this campaign, even this most respective of commanders was to display questionable
12:08judgment.
12:09I think we have to look closer at the things that were going on in Lee's life, and we begin
12:17to realize just the kind of strain he was under.
12:20One of his sons was being held to ransom by the Union forces.
12:24That must be a strain on any father.
12:26His daughter-in-law had taken to her sickbed.
12:29He himself was beginning to show the first signs of the heart trouble that would kill
12:34him shortly after the war.
12:36And in addition, he'd taken a very serious tumble from his horse, which we know had shaken
12:40him up badly.
12:42So there were a number of factors that were beginning to play on Lee that must have served
12:47together to reduce his ability to concentrate and to act decisively in the field.
12:54Still smarting from the insult of Brandy Station, Jeb Stuart obtained permission from Lee to
13:00lead his cavalry off in a broad sweep through Union territory.
13:08According to many historians, his objective was to clear away the slight to his reputation
13:13which he had received at Brandy Station by a spectacular cavalry raid behind the federal
13:20lines.
13:21In the days before radio communications, it was the cavalrymen who were charged with the
13:27responsibility of communications for the army.
13:31They would find out where the enemy were.
13:33They would report back on enemy dispositions.
13:36And more importantly, they would also provide a screen which would protect you against the
13:42enemy finding out what your dispositions were.
13:44And by allowing Stuart to go away on this grand raid into Union territory, Lee had committed
13:51a very, very fatal mistake indeed.
13:54What it means, of course, is that Lee is going to be out of contact with Stuart.
13:59There is simply no way of communicating between Lee and Stuart.
14:03It also means that Lee has severely reduced his reconnaissance ability.
14:10He's marching blind.
14:11He has no eyes, and he has no ears.
14:15Deprived of his cavalry screen by Stuart's absence, Lee had moved blindly into Pennsylvania
14:22totally unaware that the Army of the Potomac, now led by General George Meade, was closing
14:28in.
14:29Meade is a very interesting person in many ways.
14:33He was, of course, a Pennsylvanian, and that's not unimportant considering that the Union
14:38Army is operating in Pennsylvania.
14:41He's essentially at his best in the defensive.
14:45And as things turned out, of course, waging a defensive battle, that brought out his very
14:49best qualities.
14:52Some battlefields are carefully chosen by the generals who fight on them.
14:57But the Battle of Gettysburg, perhaps the greatest battle in American history, occurred
15:02here quite by accident.
15:07Early on the morning of the 1st of July, 1863, a Confederate divisional commander, General
15:14Heth, moved his men towards the small town of Gettysburg.
15:19Rumor said that there was a supply of boots in the town.
15:23Desperately short of supplies, with many of his men barefoot, Heth could not afford to
15:29ignore the possibility of resupply.
15:32Instead his men ran into General John Buford's Union Cavalry.
15:44Dismounting his two brigades of cavalry, Buford tried to hold a position on a ridge to the
15:50west of the town.
15:56Ahead of us is McPherson's Barn on McPherson's Ridge, where the battle began on July 1.
16:03General Buford had occupied this area, and on the morning of July 1, he had his scouts
16:09operating on the road to the right of the barn.
16:12At a distance of three miles out, they encountered the Confederates, about 5,000 of them, marching
16:18towards Gettysburg.
16:19So General Buford deployed his men for battle.
16:23Something took place in this area ahead of us between 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock between
16:28the cavalry for the north and General Heath's division of Confederates.
16:35Buford was commander of what today we would call a rapid reaction force, and he was sent
16:43to fix the Confederate army in its positions at Gettysburg and make them fight there.
16:50Buford had placed his men along the eastern bank of the Willoughby Run stream.
16:56A rather thin line, Buford's 2,748 dismounted troopers faced 7,500 rebels advancing from
17:06Herr's Ridge.
17:09Brigadier General Davis commanded the rebel left, Brigadier General Archer the right.
17:18What could Buford have done in these circumstances?
17:21If he'd been a Confederate cavalry commander, the chances are that Buford would have simply
17:24charged straight at the oncoming mass of the Confederates.
17:28There would have been a magnificent charge.
17:29The Confederates, the first couple of battalions, may have actually broken, but they would have
17:33reformed and Buford would have lost all his cavalry.
17:37In fact, Buford used them as mounted infantry.
17:40Buford's cavalry was actually almost unique in the Army of the Potomac in the summer of
17:461863 in that it was armed with the very modern Spencer repeating rifle or carbine.
17:54This gave his cavalry a volume of fire and a rate of fire far beyond anything that the
18:00Confederates could muster at the time.
18:02This meant that although his cavalry brigade was very small and very much outnumbered,
18:07it was able to hold off Confederate infantry for a considerable number of hours on the
18:13morning of the 1st of July.
18:19We're beginning to see a situation developing which is precisely the opposite of what Lee
18:25had hoped to achieve.
18:27Once again, there are Union cavalry who are screening the Union army and gradually drawing
18:32the Confederate forces into a pitched battle that really Lee hadn't decided to fight and
18:39crucially it's on ground which is not of Lee's own choosing.
18:45The Federals stalwartly held off their foe for a good hour, but were eventually pushed
18:51back.
18:53We're now standing on Oak Hill, high ground northwest of Gettysburg.
18:58The fighting for the morning started in the area ahead of us.
19:02The Confederates are approaching from the mountains to the west, coming in on the Chambersburg
19:07Pike which is one mile south of where we are now.
19:11The Northern Army approached from the south and through Gettysburg and took up the positions
19:18to defend the ridges ahead of us.
19:20The McPherson Barn that we saw earlier is one mile south of here.
19:26Fighting continued there all morning.
19:30As the Union resistance began to falter, General Reynolds rode to the rescue of Buford and
19:36his men with his First Corps.
19:38He sent word of the engagement to General Meade and thrust his two leading brigades
19:44into the fight which had by now marched up onto McPherson's Ridge.
19:54The men of the famed Iron Brigade ran in against Archer.
19:58Archer's Second Brigade was engaged against two of Davis' brigades.
20:04As he rode in, urging on his men, General Reynolds was shot and killed, his place taken
20:10by Major General Doubleday.
20:17Despite the disparity in numbers, the Iron Brigade met with rapid success, pushing the
20:22Confederates back across the stream and capturing Archer.
20:29The position of the Second Brigade was somewhat more precarious.
20:34Outflanked, they fell back to Seminary Ridge, recovered their ground, but were then caught
20:40in a vicious rain of fire.
20:46They charged in desperation and triumphantly forced the position.
20:51Over 1,000 Rebel muskets were discarded.
20:57The commanders had stopped to lick their wounds and assess their respective situations.
21:05Alerted by the threat of the Confederate attack, the Army of the Potomac began to concentrate
21:11on Gettysburg.
21:13And in many respects, the 1st of July represents a race against time of the Confederates trying
21:18to win a decisive action before the Army of the Potomac can concentrate.
21:24The problem for the Confederates was that if the Army of the Potomac could concentrate,
21:30get itself deployed on the high ground beyond Gettysburg, then the Confederates would have
21:35a hell of a job pushing it off those range of heights.
21:40Reinforcements poured in over the next two hours.
21:44The Union troop took up positions on McPherson Ridge.
21:50When the one-armed Major General Howard arrived, he assumed command of the Union forces from
21:56Doubleday.
22:00The Confederates of General Yule now swept down on Oak Hill from the north.
22:05Howard rushed the divisions of Barlow and Shures onto Oak Ridge to meet them.
22:12By noontime, the Northern Army had occupied another position at Oak Ridge ahead of me.
22:18General Doubleday placed his men behind a stone wall which made it a good defensive
22:23position.
22:248,000 Confederates under Major General Robert Rhodes arrived on this hill coming in from
22:30the north and occupying this high ground.
22:34They placed 20 pieces of artillery here on this hill and used them in the afternoon to
22:40bombard the Union positions ahead of us.
22:43Then they launched an infantry assault across this open space.
22:47It turned into a disaster for the Confederates because the Northern officers permitted the
22:52Confederates to approach to within a hundred yards, and then they opened up a devastating
22:58fire.
22:59Iverson's brigade from North Carolina suffered heavily in the area straight ahead of us.
23:06Unfortunately for the rebels, five brigades strong, Major General Rhodes had placed the
23:12greatest responsibility on his weakest commanders, O'Neill and Iverson.
23:18Botching their job completely, they even failed to accompany their men into the fray.
23:24The two Confederate brigades were perfunctorily destroyed by just one Union brigade.
23:41General Lee at last arrived on the battlefield in person.
23:45At first he was against a general engagement until all his forces had arrived.
23:51But as he observed Ewell's assault on Oak Ridge, he spied General Early's division
23:56in the distance.
23:58An opportunity now presented itself.
24:02With Heth's division still pushing against the Federal left, and with Ewell and Early
24:08together on the left, the Federal army would surely be crushed.
24:15Early sent in Brigadier General Gordon's brigade against the Union right.
24:20Two further rebel brigades were sent in, turning the flank and forcing the men of Brigadier
24:25General Barlow to retreat into Gettysburg itself.
24:31When the Union left, the Confederate infantry once more advanced against McPherson Ridge.
24:39The Confederate numerical superiority told, and the Federal troops at last fell back.
24:47First upon Seminary Ridge, then into Gettysburg town, where a wild melee developed.
24:55The Federal soldiers were fleeing the town when, at 4 p.m., Major General Hancock rode
25:02up.
25:03Sent by Meade to determine the viability of a general engagement, he was a magnetic officer
25:10whose very presence rallied his men.
25:14Winfield Scott Hancock, the commander of Union II Corps, was forward assessing the situation
25:24and sending messages back to senior commanders, letting them know what it was like on the
25:31ground.
25:32And he was such a take-charge guy, and he got such a good grip on the situation, that
25:38he made others around him feel that somebody was in control, running the show, doing the
25:44job.
25:45And that was because he positioned himself where he could appreciate the situation and
25:50deal with it.
25:52Noticing Cemetery Ridge, where Howard had earlier placed his reserve, Hancock determined
25:58it to be the strongest position by nature on which to fight a battle that ever I saw,
26:06and set about organizing a makeshift defense there until reinforcements could arrive.
26:13Cemetery Ridge was between 80 to 140 feet above the level of the surrounding fields.
26:20It dominated Gettysburg, dominated Seminary Ridge, lined to the west.
26:29It was named for the local cemetery that was placed here on this ridge about 10 years before
26:35the battle, just beyond where we're standing now.
26:38And so in addition to the terrain and to the height, you have monuments, marble monuments,
26:44stone monuments, you have gravestones.
26:46And so it's comparatively easy to find material that you're going to need to defend yourself.
26:51You simply get behind the gravestones, you get behind the monuments, and you use these
26:56as part of your defensive system.
27:01Lee was aware of the weak forces on Cemetery Ridge, and now urged his officers to take it.
27:09However, a combination of exhaustion, mental inertia, and vague orders from Lee himself
27:15meant that Ewell and his peers did not press home the advantage, and the fighting quietly
27:21drew to a close for the day.
27:25If the Confederates had managed to take that ground on the evening of the 1st of July,
27:30they would, in essence, have outflanked the range of heights which the Union Army then
27:35occupied and would have meant that the Union Army could not have fought a major defensive
27:40battle at Gettysburg.
27:43Overnight, reinforcements continued to arrive on both sides, as men slept in fields, barns,
27:52and houses, and General Meade arrived at Cemetery Hill just after midnight to confirm that the
27:59Federal troops would be giving battle again the next day, this time with the whole army
28:05present.
28:09Before dawn on the 2nd, General Lee rose and meditated as to the coming day's tactics.
28:16He was joined by his generals Hill, Heth, Hood, McClaw, and Longstreet.
28:23He then received reports confirming his suspicions that the Federals had just a few pickets on
28:29the extremity of Cemetery Ridge, and that the round tops, two hillocks further south,
28:35were completely unoccupied.
28:38Lee outlined his plan of attack.
28:42Longstreet, with the divisions of McClaw and Hood, would assault Cemetery Ridge from the
28:48south, Hill from the west, combining for an attack in echelon from left to right in a
28:55succession of small blows.
28:59Ewell to the north of Gettysburg would move on the sound of Longstreet's guns as a decoy
29:06to prevent reinforcements moving from the Union opposite him.
29:11The Confederates were attacking over unfavorable ground against a very well-entrenched Union
29:20force.
29:22And the Union force was sufficiently large that even on favorable ground it would have
29:29been very difficult.
29:30There were just not enough Confederate soldiers to do the job of defeating the Army of the
29:37Potomac at Gettysburg.
29:39It was a bad plan.
29:43The Union troops had marched in all night, and by 9 a.m. the Army of the Potomac was
29:49almost at full strength, occupying a three-mile long line, the apex at Gettysburg and open
29:57to the south.
30:01The 12th Corps of Slocum held the right from Culp's Hill to Rock Creek.
30:08General Howard's battered 11th Corps took Cemetery Hill with two further divisions in
30:14support.
30:18Hancock's 2nd Corps manned Cemetery Ridge, and General Sickles was given the extreme
30:25left including Little Round Top.
30:30Fifth Corps under Major General Sykes was held back as the reserve.
30:37The Union line is often described as a giant fishhook with the base in the south and the
30:43curve in the north.
30:46What this means is that the Confederate forces are effectively ranged around the outside
30:51of that fishhook.
30:53So their lines are actually much longer than the Union's.
30:56We must bear in mind that they've got fewer men in the first place, so it's by no means
31:01an ideal situation for them to fight from.
31:04What it means is a messenger riding along the whole length of the Confederate lines
31:08probably has five or even six miles to cover, where the Union lines, because they are on
31:13the smaller curve, are only three or four miles in length.
31:18So they are bringing together far more men, they're in a much more concentrated position,
31:22so it's much easier for them to communicate along the lengths of their shorter lines,
31:27which have a denser mass of troops.
31:32Back with Longstreet's forces, General McClaw decided to check that he was facing as little
31:37resistance as expected, and rode to the edge of the woods which concealed his troops.
31:45An unpleasant surprise confronted him.
31:48There arranged before him was the complete Federal Corps of General Sickles.
31:59This hill is Little Round Top.
32:02It was a cleared area at the time of the battle, no trees on it.
32:06It was on the south end of the Union Army fishhook line, the anchor on the south, with
32:12the fishhook line extending northward from here to the cemetery ridge and around the
32:19Culp's Hill.
32:21But this hill, despite its importance, had been left vacant by a northern general, Daniel
32:28Sickles.
32:29He originally had been assigned to defend the area north of here, but in the early afternoon
32:38he had moved his troops forward.
32:42In the centre, the ridge that runs in front of Cemetery Ridge is actually slightly higher
32:49than the ground that lies behind it, and of course it's this curious feature of the ground
32:56which prompts General Sickles, the commander of 3rd Corps, to advance beyond Cemetery Ridge
33:02onto this high ground.
33:03He was not wrong to do this, because he would have been savagely attacked by Confederate
33:08artillery if he had allowed the Confederates to occupy this piece of high ground.
33:13He was simply wrong not to tell General Meade he'd done so, thus leaving a big gap in the
33:18Union line.
33:22As the Confederates' artillery bombardment began, Meade arrived and, appalled by what
33:28he saw, immediately sent the 5th Corps reserve to make good the line.
33:34The rapidly arriving 6th Corps replaced them as reserve.
33:40The presence of Sickles' Corps did interfere with Lee's plans, ruining the hopes of an
33:46attack.
33:47Both generals, McClaw and Hood, protested their cases, but Longstreet insisted they
33:54move ahead as Lee ordered.
33:56Hood, recognizing that Little Round Top commanded a position that dominated the enemy, simply
34:03disobeyed his superiors and pursued a flanking maneuver towards it.
34:10General Meade was furious when he learned that Sickles had evacuated this hill.
34:16At that point, it was too late for him to order Sickles back because reports were coming
34:21to his headquarters that the Confederates were about to launch an attack from any one
34:26of several possible positions.
34:28So he sent his chief engineering officer, Brigadier General G. K. Warren, who we see
34:34ahead of us by statue in the rock, out to this area to investigate.
34:39General Warren came to this position with just a few aides.
34:42He saw that it was undefended and he also detected the Confederate movement headed this
34:47way.
34:49He made an immediate demand for troops.
34:52Rebuffed by General Sickles, Warren sent his request to Meade, who dispatched three brigades
34:59post haste.
35:02With immaculate timing, they arrived just as the Confederates swept over Big Round Top
35:08and towards them.
35:10Unmustered, two further brigades and an artillery battery and a desperate engagement ensued.
35:27We are on the south slope of Little Round Top.
35:30The summit of this important hill is about 200 yards to the north of us and it was vital
35:37that the north hold this position because if the Confederates could capture this area,
35:43they could dominate the entire Union fishhook line.
35:47The Confederates are launching their attack at four o'clock in the afternoon of the second
35:52day coming in this direction.
35:55They came over Big Round Top, which is just south of us a few hundred yards away.
36:04Miraculously, the Union forces prevailed.
36:08Warren had acted not a moment too soon.
36:11The left flank had been saved.
36:20With the fight raging at the Round Tops, a ferocious battle had broken out between the
36:25opposing corps of Sickles and Longstreet.
36:30Meade was able to deplete his right to plug gaps as they appeared and the so-called Valley
36:36of Death became shrouded with clouds of smoke.
36:43General Sickles was seriously wounded in the commotion and Meade himself led a brigade
36:48against the rebel advance.
36:56The Federal line had held just.
37:01The 1st Minnesota Regiment, for example, had lost over 80% of its strength.
37:19To the north, General Ewell failed to hear the artillery and the Confederate diversionary
37:24ruse began an hour later still.
37:29His own artillery battered the Union troops until sundown, at which time the infantry
37:35moved ominously forward.
37:37General Johnson against Culp Hill, General Early onto Cemetery Hill.
37:59Around 10 o'clock, the Confederate troops fell back, exhausted by the murderous fighting.
38:06Once more, the steadfast Union troops held their lines.
38:13Overall, the second day had brought little reward for the rebels.
38:20Certainly, Sickles had been pushed back, but only to the line he had originally meant to
38:25hold.
38:27If anything, the Army of the Potomac had strengthened its hand by securing Little Round Top.
38:37Despite this, Lee's plans for the next battle barely changed.
38:42He still needed the decisive victory.
38:47He felt an assault on the Federal center would most likely reap this, and so gambled on a
38:53ferocious artillery barrage from his 160 guns, followed by an infantry charge of some
39:0012,000 men under General Pickett.
39:06It was a fairly obvious plan for the third day.
39:10Lee had already tested the Union lines in the south on their left.
39:15He'd then gone ahead and tested the Union lines in the north on their right, and on
39:21the third day, he was simply going to try and test the Union lines in the center.
39:26So it was no surprise, really, that Meade was able to second-guess his intentions.
39:34Daybreak saw the concluding chapter in the story of the Federal right.
39:41Those troops Meade had previously moved returned to their former positions, where they discovered
39:47sections of their line at Culp's Hill occupied by the enemy.
39:54As the day dawned, the attempt to recover their lost trenches began, and continued until
40:00mid-morning.
40:02The Union forces eventually prevailed, their line intact.
40:09At the stroke of one, however, the entire Confederate artillery, some 160 cannon, burst
40:18into thunderous action.
40:19The compliment was soon returned.
40:22For 90 minutes, they blazed.
40:34Meade suddenly chose to rest his guns and allow the smoke to clear, to see if a rebel
40:40advance was underway.
40:42The rebels misinterpreted the silence as a sign that the Federal guns were smashed
40:48and their troops demoralized.
40:51The Confederate attack duly moved forward under the command of Major General Pickett.
41:02As the terrible events of Pickett's charge were being played out, General Stewart had
41:07at long last arrived with the Confederate cavalry.
41:13General Lee immediately put him to the task of outflanking, and then setting upon the
41:18rear of the enemy.
41:20This maneuver should have been made simultaneously with General Pickett's assault on Cemetery
41:26Hill.
41:28So Stewart turns up at last, and it's recorded that Lee actually looked as if he had made
41:35to strike Stewart.
41:36He appears to have been so angry.
41:39Don't forget we've seen two days of very close fighting where the presence of the cavalry
41:44would actually have turned, possibly, the result decisively.
41:50In practice, Lee doesn't actually strike Stewart.
41:53He sends him off on a wide outflanking movement in support of Pickett's charge, but really
41:59he's too late by this stage.
42:03From out of the woods on the other side came 12,000 Confederate soldiers with supporting
42:08troops on each side.
42:10They came at first like they were undressed parade.
42:13They marched in step and in straight lines with music behind them and flags in front
42:17for the first one-fourth of the distance across that open space.
42:21At that point, the northern guns opened fire.
42:24They caused casualties, but the Confederates just came faster and faster towards this position.
42:31The terrain was really unsuitable for Pickett's charge.
42:34Who would want to take infantry over flat ground, no cover, no dead ground, overlooked
42:42by Union artillery, seven-eighths of a mile long?
42:46It's nearly a mile.
42:47It takes a fit, healthy man in good condition half an hour to walk a mile with nobody shooting
42:55at him.
42:57And here's Pickett being forced to send his people across flat ground, almost a mile,
43:04with no artillery support, and the enemy's shooting cannons at him.
43:09Undaunted, the Rebels courageously maintained their course, passing the Emmitsburg Road
43:30and converging on Federal positions at the angle.
43:35Impacted and pinned down by devastating fire, General Pickett lost all but one of his officers.
43:44Despite capturing several enemy cannons, the Confederates were repulsed at bayonet point
43:50by the 72nd Pennsylvania Regiment.
43:56Despite everything ranged against them, Pickett's men actually did manage to reach the Union
44:00lines in one place and actually capture, for a brief period, some of the Federal guns.
44:06For that reason, it's still celebrated as one of the great heroic actions in military
44:11history.
44:12However, ultimately, it was a futile exercise.
44:15It was badly planned, it was badly executed, and really, it should never have been ordered
44:20in the first place.
44:23Confederate casualties in this single action were frightful.
44:275,600 men, over 30% of those that began the day.
44:40General Lee is on the other side, depicted riding out to greet the survivors of Pickett's
44:46charge.
44:47He greeted all his men by saying, it's all my fault, it's all my fault.
44:52All commanders must take responsibility for the decisions that he takes and in which his
44:57subordinates take on his behalf.
45:00So of course, the general responsibility was indeed his.
45:05And if I might say so, Lee showed a good deal more moral courage and sense of responsibility
45:09than many commanders one could name in riding forward and proclaiming, as Pickett's and
45:15other troops came back to the Confederate side, it was all my fault.
45:21Lee sent three divisions of rebel infantry up against seven corps of Yankees without
45:33artillery support.
45:35And the ground was unsuitable, the plan was unsuitable, and the cavalry support that Lee
45:45envisioned coming around the Union flag was going to run into opposition as well.
45:55As he moved, General Stewart was spotted and met by the Federal General Greg, who had with
46:02him three brigades of Union cavalry.
46:05One of these was under the command of the dashing and brilliant General George Custer.
46:15Brisk skirmishing broke out in the woods on Crest Ridge, a prelude to a spectacular clash
46:22as the Confederate column ran straight into Custer's 1st Michigan Brigade.
46:34Despite their superior numbers, the rebel cavalry were held to stalemate.
46:40Greg's men had valiantly held their ground and staved off a potential catastrophe.
46:50The third day's fighting drew to a close as night fell.
46:54Although his army remained formidable and its morale unswayed, Lee, his hope shattered
47:01on the battlefield, was now forced to contemplate more unpleasant steps.
47:07He sourfully issued orders to fall back over the Potomac River and into Virginia.
47:16I think after this he knew that the war was lost, he knew that Gettysburg marked the turning
47:22point in the war, he knew that they could never win from there.
47:26And in this sense it did demoralise him, but he still prosecuted a campaign that lasted
47:32nearly another two years.
47:36The Battle of Gettysburg then represents the dashing of the final chance for the South
47:42to take the war to the Union.
47:47The contemporary accounts talk about 12 miles of ambulances carrying the wounded in the
47:54wake of the army.
47:57This was obviously a major strategic defeat for the South and this was one that they could
48:03never ever hope to recover from.