The Bloodiest Battle of Gettysburg Day 3
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Learn more at phrma.org slash IPWorksWonders. Hello, everyone. Stuckery here and welcome back to another episode of the History of Everything podcast. And on that note, welcome back, my friends, to day three of the Battle of Gettysburg. We've gone through two incredibly bloody days of battle and it's still going.

At this point, I am working on a series of different things that I am planning on making, including some suggestions that those in Patreon have actually given me for different episodes. So I'm going to be making a series of Patron episodes here next. And simultaneously, I have some other regular content that I'm going to be working on. But oh, dear God, has this been insane trying to prepare for everything that I've had going on this week? I actually just had a little excursion here with my wife for Valentine's Day, so that was nice.

But then we ended up actually getting trapped up on a mountain because the entire state of Kentucky is flooding right now. So that was interesting and caused some issues for us up there. But now that we are back, I am now prepping rapidly for War of the Barons, which this time is what? Four days from the time that I'm recording this here. So I'm going to be in South Carolina, specifically fighting a bunch of people in woods while wearing armor. So that's nice. Either way, speaking of fighting.

It's time to get back to Gettysburg. And on that note, we're going to need to talk about some of the differences at this point between the two sides. For those of you that have not seen or heard the previous episodes that I've made, why the hell are you here? Go back and listen to those two. You need to understand what it is that I'm talking about. Because when I talk about all these very different names, with Meade, Robert E. Lee, and more, you need to know the context. And so what we're going to be talking about first is Meade's Council of War.

See, one of the telling differences between the commanders of the opposing forces on the now very blood-stained field of Gettysburg was that, unlike Robert E. Lee, Meade had personally traveled the length and breadth of his lines and interacted with most of his generals on July 2nd. And by doing so, he had a firsthand look at the condition of his men and the sheer amount of damage that had been inflicted upon the ANV.

Lee, on the other hand, spent the day at his HQ, the home of widower Mary Thompson, along with Chambersburg Pike, and issued orders to his subordinates from there. Lee would not convene with his corps commanders and was dead set on continuing the offense the next day, whereas Meade would do the opposite.

So Meade had telegraphed General-in-Chief Henry Halleck in Washington and told him of Lee's attack. Now, while it's been debated that Meade wanted to retreat, he needed to assess the condition of his troops, and also he needed to hear from his intelligence service. He would end his telegram, quote, I shall remain in my present position tomorrow, but am not prepared to say until better advised of the condition of the army, whether operations will be of an offensive or defensive character, end quote.

Around 9 p.m., Meade would assemble his corps commanders at the home of widower Lydia Leister. And present were a variety of men, far more than actually needed to be able to fit into a small room of only 10 or 12 feet square. Not only was that a lot of brass in one place, but there was a bed, a small table, and a chair or two.

As it stands, one of his commanders, Warren, had been wounded in action earlier, so he was curled up in a corner fast asleep. But besides that, there was a dozen other guys just concentrated in this. Major General Bernie, Major General George Sykes, Major General John Sedgwick, Major General Howard, and so, so many more.

As for what the contents of this meeting entailed, well, in 1881, after Meade's death, a paper was uncovered while his son went through his father's effects. General Gibbon was shown this paper in which the minutes of this council war was written. Meade, with his army now down to around 58,000 effectives, desired to know, among his corps commanders, what the army should do. Dan Butterfield would write down three questions to be voted on.

1. Under existing circumstances, is it advisable for this army to remain in its present position or to retire to another nearer to the base of supplies? 2. It being determined to remain in present position, shall the army attack or await the attack of the enemy? 3. If we await attack, for how long? And it was unanimous, more or less. Stay, await attack, and then wait one day. That is what was determined.

As the council broke up after midnight, Meade would pull Gibbon aside and said, quote, if Lee attacks tomorrow, it will be in your front. Now, Lee had no such luxury of council. Due to logistical problems, he couldn't stay on the field at Gettysburg for too long. So assuming a defensive posture just wasn't really an option. To withdraw in front of a strong enemy was too risky and made little sense. He must resume the offensive.

Lee knew he must attack Meade Center, but how he would do this would be ironed out later. Major General George Pickett's 5,600-man division and its artillery had arrived and settled in for the night three and a half miles northwest of the town center. If Lee were to attack Meade Center, he knew that federal infantry and artillery would chew up any attack across open terrain. So he decided on a massive bombardment upon the Union lines before sending his men.

Throughout the night, Lee's gunnery chiefs would position their guns. General Longstreet was against Lee's idea, but Lee's III Corps, commanding officer A.P. Hill, endorsed it and offered infantry support from his battle battered divisions.

While attacking the Union Center was Lee's main objective, he also wanted Ewell's II Corps to mount simultaneous attacks on both Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill in the early morning hours of July 3rd. Attacking Culp's Hill again, it was hoped, was to either cause a breakthrough there or prevent reinforcements from being sent to the Union Center. For the men who had charged up Culp's Hill the night before, few were looking forward to charging the Union Breastwork again.

Worse yet, for those rebels that were earmarked to attack the Heights again, the remainder of Slocum's 12th Corps had returned to their previous positions, as the need for reinforcing the 2nd Corps had come to an end. So here it is then, Culp's Hill, Part 2. As the night's fighting on Culp's Hill was coming to a close, 12th Corps brigades sent to reinforce the Union Center began heading to Culp's Hill.

Due to the presence of the Confederate Brigade under B.G. Stewart, who held the Union breastworks, Union reinforcements were unable to reclaim the lost works. By midnight, three brigades totaling around 4,600 men were poised south of the hill. Another 1,800-man brigade would tack onto the right flank of the Union lines at Culp's Hill.

The battle for the hill would resume at 4.30 when five Union artillery batteries opened fire on Stewart's mixed brigade, who still held on to the Union breastworks from the previous night. They were pinned there for half an hour as the Union prepared their own attack. The Rebs would beat them to the punch.

Just before 5 a.m., the 299 men of the 66th Ohio got orders to cross over the breastworks and face right. The men to Green's front was the Brigade of Louisiana they had squared off against on July 2nd. The 66th raked the brigade with rifle fire, but off to their left was a whole brigade of Virginians. And yet, another mystery of this battle, these Virginians attacked the Buckeyes in a piecemeal fashion and would inflict only 17 casualties on the regiment. It was remarkably light.

But the next hour, the entire line was engulfed in gunfire. Green's men would fire so fast that many rifles became foul and ammo began to run low. In order to fix this, as one regiment fell back to clean their weapons and replenish their cartridge boxes, another regiment would take its place. Regiments from four Union brigades were able to shuffle back and forth while still maintaining a heavy volume of fire, which actually resulted in few friendly losses.

Another attack at 8 a.m. would see a brigade from Alabama attack where the Louisianans had, well, with the same results. An unidentified Confederate would write home after the battle, quote, I thought I'd been in hot places before. I thought I'd heard many eyeballs, but that day, July 3rd, capped the climax. All day long, it was a continuous roar. Another would say, quote, the whole hillside seemed enveloped in a blaze. Many eyeballs pattered upon the breastworks like hail upon a housetop.

Solid shot went crashing through the woods, adding the danger from falling limbs of trees to that from erratic fragments of exploding shells. The whole hill was covered with the smoke and smelled gunpowder. No enemy could be seen. End quote. The Confederate Division commanding officer, Major General Edward Johnson, would order Stewart's Brigade and a brigade of North Carolinians to attack the saddle or depression between the two hills. Both brigade commanding officers would protest, but these protests were ignored.

The attack wasn't well coordinated, and Stuart's men would cross an open field and suffer terrible losses. It's said that Stuart, distraught and with tears streaming down his cheeks, would wring his hands and repeat, "My poor boys, my poor boys." The North Carolinians would try their luck and had the advantage of wood cover, but it still wasn't enough, and they too fell back. Johnson would in turn send in the Stonewall Brigade, but they too made no progress.

At 10 a.m., 12th Corps Commanding Officer Slocum would order one of his brigade commanding officers to retake Union breastworks at Spangler Spring. Two regiments were picked, the 2nd Massachusetts and the 27th Indiana. The conversation between the commanding officer of the 2nd Massachusetts and the staff officer who relayed the order went like this. You sure about that? Yep. Well, it's murder, but it's an order. And mind you, this is a direct quote that was said. Well, it is murder, but it's an order.

The lieutenant colonel turned to face his men and shouted, Up men, over the works, forward, double quick. Now to see how well the attack went, let's just go by the color bearers, the men who hold the regiment's flag up and made prime targets. Before the 2nd Massachusetts went 50 yards, the color sergeant was killed. A corporal then took the flag and was killed a moment later. Another corporal took his turn and was wounded. A private then took the colors and before the colors hit the ground, only to immediately be shot and killed.

Finally, another private would take the flag and board from the field. When all was said and done, both regiments involved in the charge would lose 43% and 32% of their men. The lieutenant colonel, who mentioned murder before his orders earlier, was himself killed at this point. The charge of the 2nd Massachusetts and 27th Indiana would mark the end of combat on Culp's Hill. By 1130 AM, it was all over when Union regiments reclaimed the breastwork at Spangler Springs.

A division commanding officer from Slocum's 12th Corps would claim that his 3,900 officers and men had fired over 277,000 rounds during the fighting. Which, you may think, that's an exaggeration. Well, perhaps. But if true, that meant that each of his men fired 71 rounds, and a soldier's cartridge box only held 40 rounds, and each mini-ball weighs a little over an ounce. So...

That's a lot of lead. Even if you want to reduce it by half, that is still a lot. 12th Corps carried Culp's Hill with just under 1,100 casualties, comparatively light losses considering the duration of the fighting, for no gain at all. Johnson reported over 1,800 Confederate losses, but that number didn't really include losses for three other brigades that were also involved.

The hill itself, as well as the farm complex, were owned by a guy called Henry Culp, which, as you can probably guess, that's what the name came up from in the first place. His house and barn would be used, as would just about any in Gettysburg, and would become a field hospital for Johnson's wounded and those of another one of Yule Division commanding officer. The property would also be the spot where Colonel Isaac Avery, who we met in our last episode, would draw his last breath.

I mention this because after the last attack, the 2nd Virginia Regiment would take roll and find that while the 2nd had skirmish duty, they suffered 1 killed, 16 wounded, and 3 missing. The sole man killed, 24-year-old Gettysburg-born Private John Wesley Culp, was Henry Culp's cousin. Another Culp would be killed in September, also in Gettysburg, and his first cousin, James Culp, was 17 and had the habit of opening up shells and dumping out the black powder, except for the last one.

This was one of but a handful of civilian deaths in the aftermath of the campaign due to people failing to understand rule number one of firearm safety, always assume a gun is loaded. Anyway, to the East Cavalry field. We've earlier talked about General Buford's heroic stand and brilliant military strategy utilized during the fighting in episode one. We also examined a string of events which led to Jeb Stuart's absence until late in the afternoon on July 2nd.

But Buford was only one of three division commanders of the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps. The Federal Cavalry's big cheese was Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Pleasonton's Confederate counterpart was, as already stated, Jeb Stuart. But what of his 6,400 men? What of the rest of Pleasonton's 12,000 men, minus those led by Buford on July 1st? What happened to Buford for the rest of the battle? Now hold your horses.

By the early evening, Buford's division would form a skirmish line running from the Baltimore Pike all the way down to Peach Orchard. By 1 p.m. on July 2nd, Buford's division would leave the field and head into Maryland and guard the army supply wagons. Buford would die that December, probably of typhoid fever. As for the other roughly 14,000 cavalrymen, there would be not one but two cavalry battles on July 3rd.

The first would occur around the same time as the bombardment before Pickett's Charge, while the other took place to the west of Big Round Top. By the time that the fight took place, the Charge was over, and the survivors of the failed Charge had returned to their launch off-point. The name of these cavalry battles were the East Cavalry Field and the South Cavalry Field.

Because why not? At this point, we're going to tackle those cavalry actions in chronological order. But first, we need to move three miles east of town center, where we'll meet the youngest brigadier general in the field of Gettysburg in both armies. A man who would make a name for himself during the war, but who people only know of because of his early death in 1876. A man who would write many spicy letters to his wife, we should say the least, talking about how his little soldier, whom he named John, would profess his love like many inmates would today.

Yeah, we're not going to really get into all of that, but I'll give you just one of these as a little bit of a taste. Quote, John had been making constant and earnest inquiries for his bunkie for a long time. And this morning, he seems most persistent than ever. I'm going to leave that there. 19th century sexting. The more you know, the man who penned this diabolical letter, George Armstrong Custer. Yeah.

After Stewart's icy meeting with Bobby Lee on July 2nd, plans were made for Stewart to operate beyond that army's flank. While there, he was to look for an opportunity to attack the Union rear and disrupt or better yet cut off Meade's communications. Stewart's cavalry held the York Pike, the road that leads north-northeast out of town. From there, they could easily threaten Baltimore Pike, which, if you'll remember, was the Union's main supply line.

This would wreak havoc on the Federals and help Stuart regain face after his escapade from the lead up to the battle. His attack was to commence at 1 p.m., the same time as the cannonade would proceed to pick its charge, which was about to begin. Stuart would have four cavalry brigades totaling 4,500 to 5,000 men, though the numbers for this exactly may vary, along with 13 cannons.

One of the brigade commanders was Lee's nephew, Fitzhugh, while another had been led by a son, William, but he was wounded at Brandy Station and later captured. Facing Stewart would be two Union brigades of cavalry, totaling 3,200 troopers, one of which was led by Custer and, you know, his John. Custer's brigade had been detached from the division his brigade belonged to. While he would fight east of town, the other brigade from the division would fight south cavalry field, but we're going to cover that fight later.

While Stuart had a numerical superiority in terms of numbers of men, his troopers had spent most of the last nine days in the saddle during their scenic tour of Pennsylvania and Maryland. So both man and horse were tired by this point. Union cavalry, minus Buford's division, were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. When Stuart realized that he had been spotted, he ordered his artillery forward while his troopers moved into some nearby woods for cover until the Union strength could be determined.

The youngest Union cavalry commanding officer on the field would be Brigadier General David McMurdy Gregg. Gregg wanted to test the Rebel artillery and ordered his six guns to open fire. Due to more guns and better ammo, Union fire would disable one Rebel cannon and killed and wounded many men and horses, forcing its withdrawal. Another Rebel battery would take its place, but quickly lost half of its horses and would also withdraw.

The fighting would begin with skirmishing between dismounted cavalry from both sides. And now when I talk about this, what's fun about dismounted cavalry is when you deploy, your strength is down by 25%. And that's because some of the men actually have to remain behind in order to be able to tend the horses. You can't technically just leave the horses to their own devices as you fight on foot.

Because, you know, when the shots start flying, the horses get all skittish and want to run away. So if you have 10,000 men that are going into battle mounted and then they dismount, only around 7,500 of those are actually moving forward to fight. Anyway, Gregg would throw more men into the fray, as would Stewart. But two of Gregg's Michigan regiments had the new seven-shot Spencer repeating rifles that we talked about in episode one.

This firepower would cause the rebels to think that they faced more men than they actually had. As one POW would tell his captor, Unes load in the morning and shoot all day. Seeing two other Union regiments in retreat for want of ammunition, a brigade to Virginia would charge, but the fire from the Michiganders would rip into them. Union Brigade Commanding Officer Colonel John McIntosh would request the support of his sole reserve regiment when, to his horror, he learned that Gregg had moved it too far to be of any use.

Luckily, Custer's brigade was there and was ordered to counterattack. He would yell to his men, come on, you Wolverines. The 7th Michigan of Custer's brigade would then push back the Virginia cavalry before they themselves were forced to retreat, having slammed into three more Virginia regiments and a line of rebel skirmishers to their left flank. Gregg would try to stop the fleeing 7th, yelling, for God's sake, men, if you are ever going to stand, stand now, for you are on free soil.

Empowering words indeed, but it didn't really do any good. However, these Confederate troopers made for a juicy target for Union Iron, which sent both men and force hurtling through the air. Or still, a flanking attack by another Michigan regiment and a charge of part of another regiment would stop the Virginia attack and force the turn back.

At this point, it's now 3 p.m., and the Confederate barrage is coming to a close, and Lee's infantry are making final preparations to advance onto Cemetery Ridge. Stewart would form a long line of horsemen that would come out of the wood line at a walk, then a trot, then a gallop. One Federal cavalryman would say, quote, a grander spectacle than their advance has rarely been beheld. Their polished saber blades dazzled in the sun.

The rest of Custer's men would join the fight, and Stewart would also receive fire from parts of Union cavalry regiments on his left flank, as well as fire on his right from Union cavalry deployed to skirmishers. Unable to advance any further, Confederates conceded defeat and would leave the field. In 40 minutes of fighting, Union losses were 254, most from Custer's command, and 181 Confederate.

Minor losses compared to the losses that many infantry regiments had suffered that we've covered here before. But this is something that we kind of explained of what happens with cavalry fights. As for the South Cavalry Field, this one here was a bit different because instead of cavalry versus cavalry, it's cavalry versus infantry. And that's not really a good thing.

We've already mentioned two of the three Federal Cavalry Division commanding officers, Buford and Gregg. The 3rd Division, minus Custer Brigade, was ordered to the Union left flank. Sharp skirmishing would occur between Union troopers and rebel infantry, spanning from the base of Big Round Top and west to the Emmitsburg Road, almost three-quarters of a mile. These troopers would try to flank several Georgia regiments.

It was now 4 p.m. and skirmishing had been going on for three hours. At this point that we will be talking about later, Pickett's charge had already happened. And yeah, that didn't work, which I mean, spoiler alert. But this is arguably one of the most famous, horrible things that has happened in American history. The Georgia regiments were already tired, having fought at the Wheatfield the day before. Brigadier General Evander Law, now in charge of the division after John Bell Hood's wounding, was concerned about his flank.

He would personally lead a force of two more Georgia regiments. Union cavalry would advance, but their advance would be checked by the two Georgia regiments led by General Law. Law would halt his advance because he didn't want to risk a general engagement, and he was taking fire from an entire battery of six cannons just off to his left. Both sides would suffer a few casualties. And when I say a few, I mean like a few dozen, which, all things considered, is not nearly as bad as what happens in most cases here.

The 3rd Union Cavalry Commanding Officer was a real character, we should say. Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick, or Kil-Cavalry. His tactics were known to be unhealthy in regards to the men under his command. Not only that, if the cavalry had a PR team, they would likely all quit. He was an individual that was known for having many complications to his character, we should say.

One, he had a badly maintained camps that tend to be filled with prostitutes that would often visit him. Second, he was jailed in 1862 for corruption charges like for selling Confederate goods in order to pad his pockets. Third, he was jailed again for a drunken spree in Washington, D.C. And fourth, he allegedly was accepting bribes, which, considering everything else, seems quite likely.

Kilpatrick prepared for a full-scale assault against the Texas regiment in the rebel right flank and saw artillery that appeared right for picking glory. He ordered his remaining brigade, as Custer's was up north, under the command of Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth to attack. Farnsworth protested as he would be fighting infantry over rocky terrain, which for cavalry is a bit of a disaster of a combo. And some say Kilpatrick dared or shamed Farnsworth into attacking.

Long story short, it was an uncoordinated attack that had his cavalry divided into smaller groups, and each would attack one at a time. I wasn't really able to find casualty numbers, but it was at least 200 federal troopers, including General Farnsworth. He would have two horses killed under him before he himself was hit five times. A house in town would become an inn named in his honor.

The original part of the house is over 200 years old and the brick structure built in 1833 has over 100 bullet holes from the battle. So a little bit more than the five that were personally in him. This battle would mark the end of cavalry hostilities in Gettysburg. With the main cavalry actions done, at this point, we need to rewind the clock back a few hours and cover the main event, the Battle of Pickett's Charge.

When it comes to the naming and the organization of command as pertaining to the charge, it just really doesn't make any kind of sense, which is kind of a recurring theme throughout the entire series. James Longstreet was an overall command of this day's assault, but the charge is called Pickett's Charge, not Longstreet's, which is a little bit weird. But if that's not weird enough, the majority of the men making the charge weren't even from Longstreet's First Corps. They were from A.P. Hill's Third.

Not only that, but many of the brigades from his corps had been roughly handled in the previous day's fighting while Pickett's men were fresh. Now, why these units were chosen to do the charge is really kind of unknown to us.

As for how many men would take part, even that is up for debate. I've seen numbers from 11,500 to 13,000. It's like some said that there were three divisions involved, but there were four. And to quote Mark Twain, quote, it's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

Regardless, the consensus is that 12,500 rebels, and based on all the battle maps I've seen over the years, there were four divisions. Those four divisions and their commanders and regiments were from the states as follows. You had Major General George Pickett and all brigades from Virginia. You had the Brigadier General James Pettigrew, who replaced the wounded in action Henry Heth, and led brigades from Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Mississippi.

You had Major General Isaac Trimble, who replaced the mortally wounded Dorsey Pender, who had two brigades from North Carolina, brigades who he never had actually worked with before, and then Major General Richard Anderson, who led forces from Alabama and Florida. We met these two brigades in the previous episode when the 1st Minnesota made its historic and very costly charge against the Alabamians. Oddly enough, the Alabama Brigade would attack only a few hundred feet from where their advance halted on July 2nd.

The same was true of the Floridians, but neither brigade would advance as far on the 3rd as they had on the 2nd. While no troops from the ANV's 2nd Corps would take part in the charge, 11 batteries, that being 44 cannons from Ewell's artillery, would take part in the pre-attack bombardment. This, my friends, is where we talk about artillery. The three main cannons present at Gettysburg were the 3-inch Ordnance, the 10-pound Parrot gun, and the easily identifiable 12-pound Napoleon.

This trio would comprise 87%, that being 571 out of 653 of all artillery pieces on the battlefield. Now, even though cannons had been around as early as the 12th century China, by the 19th century, cannons were either smoothbore or rifle, you know, meaning they had the spiral grooves inside the barrel to impart twist on a projectile. Both the three-inch ordnance and the parrot were rifle, while the Napoleon was still smoothbore.

The three-inch ordnance and the parrot were made of either wrought iron or a combo of wrought iron and cast iron, making it lighter at 800 to 900 pounds. Napoleon, on the other hand, though, that was bronze and weighed over 1,200 pounds. And when I talk about that, that's just the weight of the tube itself. You can easily spot Napoleons as their barrels are now a greenish-blue color due to the patina that occurs where bronze is exposed to the elements of the ears. I mean, you can just look at the Statue of Liberty and know what it is that I'm talking about.

Remember how I said that those three types of cannons mentioned earlier made up the vast majority of those on the field? Well, guess what else? The A&V also fielded at the Battle a variety of different things. 6-pound guns, 12-pound howitzers, 24-pound howitzers, 20-pound parrots, 3-inch naval guns, Lakeley rifles, Whitworth rifles. There's a lot.

If you're not really a gun guy, that means that for each gun, you're going to need ammo for each type of gun. Since most can't use the ammo for a 12 pound Napoleon and load that into a 20 pound parrot, that's not going to work. So keeping these guns supplied with ammo was a logistical nightmare for the quartermaster department to the A&V. Those Whitworth rifles themselves were breech loading cannons, which fired hexagonal shot. And there were a whopping two of them present at Gettysburg.

A word of note, cannon, tube, gun, piece, like all these terms mean the same thing, basically. A typical battery during the Civil War would consist of six cannons in the Army of the Potomac and four cannons in the ANV. Each cannon would have a caisson and a limber, and the caisson was a two-wheeled carriage containing two ammo chests and a spare wheel. The limber was also a two-wheeled carriage, but contained one ammo chest connected to a six-horse team.

One would tow the cannon while the other towed either of the caissons, so each cannon would go into battle with four ammo chests. Additionally, the limber would tow a battery wagon, a wagon containing tools and spare parts, and a traveling forge to repair iron parts of the cannon and replace horseshoes for the horses. The tools used for firing the piece would be carried on the caissons and limbers while traveling and then slung under the piece while in action.

The type of ammo that they would fire would consist of a variety of things. You had solid shot, which is the classic thing that we associate with cannons. Solid iron balls, good for punching through solid objects like walls, buildings, and columns of infantry. You had a shell, which was a round hollow iron ball filled with powder and a fuse that would explode into large fragments.

You had another type of like spherical case, which was a shell pretty much, but it was loaded with 40 to 80 musket balls. And then you had canister, which was a metal cylinder loaded with sawdust and dozens of iron balls of about an inch or so in diameter, which was pretty much a giant shotgun, which was best used at close range, like less than 400 yards against massed infantry.

At least a dozen horses were required to move these cannons, their limbers, their case in and the crew to and from the field of battle. Seven cannoneers and a gunner, a sergeant would man each gun and the crew would be numbered and each man would play a role in firing. If worse comes to worse, only two men would be needed to fire, which again, worse comes to worse. If all safety protocols were to be thrown out of the window in the heat of battle.

Numbers 1 through 4 would load, clean, and fire the piece. Number 5 would carry the round from the limber to the gun. 6 and 7 would prepare the round and cut fuses. And the gunner would be in charge, giving commands and aiming the piece. Now I know at this point we've gone on quite a bit about cannons, but now at this point, we will talk about their firing.

It was going to be 87 degrees that day, which, yes, it is hot and they were all wearing wool, which absolutely sucks at the time. And command of the guns for the charge would be given to Colonel Alexander, man, the artillery of Longstreet's Corps, 150 to 170 Confederate guns to be facing off against 85 federal guns.

The barrage would start at 1 p.m. when two cannons were to fire, signaling the beginning of the barrage. One cannon had a faulty friction primer, so it was delayed in firing, which I only imagined at that point. Like, you have 10,000 men waiting on your signal to start and you screw up. Either way, at that point, once the firing began, it was estimated that there were anywhere between 200 to 600 explosions per minute.

Federal Chief of Artillery, Brigadier General Henry Hunt, had federal batteries hold their fire for 15 minutes. Confederate barrage was not really effective due to poor visibility from black powder and poor fuses. Meade's headquarter was even evacuated because of overshooting cannon fire.

Mind you, when we talk about this, the Leicester house is 300 yards behind Emmitsburg Road, and one of Hayes' staff officers would say, and I quote, Nothing could live there. Tons of metal of various kinds seemed to be falling around about me. The ground was strewn with dead men and dying horses. It goes on, Some men and many horses dreadfully mangled, some horses on their haunches in the agonies of their death struggles and in other positions that show too plainly the terror of the occasion.

The scene around these headquarters was one of devastation, and my ride was a ride of horror as well as a futile one. This coming from Lieutenant David Shields, Hayes Brigade, 2nd Corps. A shell would mortally wound Colonel Paul J. Revere of the 20th Massachusetts. This was the grandson of Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere.

The Confederates amassed approximately 135 cannon and at one o'clock in the afternoon unleashed about an hour-long bombardment of the Union position. The Confederate infantry marched at around two o'clock, emerging from the woods below Seminary Ridge and urged on by Pickett's cry, Don't forget today that you are from Old Virginia.

According to one Union observer, it made for an awesome sight. Quote, None of that crest now need be told, the enemy is advancing, he wrote. Every eye could see his legions, an overwhelming, resistless tide of an ocean of armed men sweeping upon us. Right on they move, as with one soul in perfect order, without impediment of ditch or wall or stream over ridge and slope, through orchard and meadow and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible. This, down low later, would be frozen into myth.

See, the bombardment had caused terrible noise and substantial damage, but toward the goal of knocking out the Union guns, it had been a failure. It did not work. As a result, Confederate casualties were high from the start. John Dooley, an officer in the 1st Virginia Regiment, would say that once he came under fire, quote, instead of burning to avenge the insults of our country, families, altars, and firesides, the thought is most frequently, oh, if I could just come out of this charge safely and how thankful I would be.

Pickett's men struggled to move to their left and close the 400-yard gap that had separated their left flank from Pettigrew's right at the start of the advance. Both flanks would meet opposite of what some would later claim to be the agreed-upon target, a corner in the stone wall that came to be known as the Bloody Angle, and a copse of trees just behind it. In everyone's way, meanwhile, was the sunken Emmitsburg Road, covered on the west by a post and rail fence, and on the east by post and board.

While many Tennesseans and North Carolinians surged well beyond the road, about half of Pettigrew's men would stop there. In contrast, Pickett's Virginians were fresh troops, not having endured the bloodshed of the previous two days, and they managed to maintain their formation, executing the left oblique under fire and closing with Pettigrew's men near the road. Meanwhile, on the Union side of the stone fence, the 71st Pennsylvania would see the Virginians headed their way and abandon the angle, leaving behind two pieces of artillery.

The 72nd Pennsylvanian would rush to cover the gap from 80 yards behind the line, while the 69th would hold the wall. When Pickett's men arrived, they halted and exchanged fire with the Pennsylvanians at close range. Suddenly, one of Pickett's brigade leaders, Louis Armistead, led 100 Virginians over the wall, exhorting his men, Come forward, Virginians. Come on, boys. We must give them cold steel. Who will follow me? They grabbed the abandoned guns and even wheeled one around, but they couldn't fire it for lack of ammunition.

And yet, really, none of this worked. Once the men reached Emmitsburg Road and the fence, the charge had lost a lot of steam. Depending upon where a regiment was in relation to the road, it was anywhere between 150 to 400 yards from Union lines, and the men were picked off. Pickett's charge was an unmitigated disaster, not only for the ANV, but for the Confederacy as a whole. Federal losses amounted to around 1,500. The ANV, 50%. Pickett's division, 50%.

lost 2,655. Pettigrews, 2,700. Trimble's, 885. Wilcox and Lang's brigades, 335. Of the 12,500 men, 1,100 were killed in action, 4,000 wounded in action, and according to Union reports, 3,750 were now prisoners of war, including many of the wounded. Both Pettigrew and Trimble would be wounded in action, Pettigrew only slightly, and Trimble would completely lose a leg.

Losses amongst the officers in Pickett's division were horrific. 26 of 40 of field grade officers, majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels were casualties. 11 of Pickett's regimental commanding officers were graduates of the Virginia Military Institute, the South's West Point. Six were killed in action and five wounded in action. All three of his brigade commanding officers would fall in battle. It was a complete and utter disaster.

In the end, repulsed by close-range Union fire and artillery, the Confederates were forced to retreat. When ordered to reform as men after the attack by Lee, Pickett reportedly replied, I have no division. Lee would withdraw his army from Gettysburg late on the rainy afternoon of July 4th, and from this mead due to the rain, would choose to not attack. Lee would trudge back to Virginia with severely wounded ranks and many, many wasted lives.

In the aftermath of the battle, as many as 51,000 soldiers from both armies had been killed, wounded, or captured or missing. And this was just over the course of three days. The sheer amount of carnage was overwhelming, but the Union victory would buoy Lincoln's hopes of ending the war. With Lee running south, Lincoln would expect that Meade was going to intercept the Confederate troops and force their surrender, but Meade did no such thing. Even as Lee's escape is hampered by flooding of the Potomac, Meade still does not pursue them.

When Lincoln learns of this missed opportunity to potentially end the war on July 12th, he laments, quote, We only had to stretch forth our hands and they were ours. Months later, in November of 1863, a portion of the Gettysburg battlefield would become a final resting place for the Union dead. President Lincoln would use the dedication ceremony at the Gettysburg Soldiers National Cemetery to give the famous Gettysburg Address, something which would honor the fallen and reassert the purpose of the war in a historic moment.

As he would say, the world will little note or long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought have thus so far nobly advanced. The war itself would continue on until 1865.

And that, my friends, is something that honestly probably deserves not just its own episode, but its own series. We've done this whole thing on Gettysburg. And I think personally that the Civil War really in general, since we've talked about doing the American Revolution, the Civil War and other conflicts, that is something that we likely should cover. After all, on Patreon, we have been doing Vietnam as a full series, the next episode of which is about to drop. And I think at that point, that is like, what, ninth episode?

It has been quite a lot. Either way, the end. That is the Battle of Gettysburg. Thank you all so much for listening. I really appreciate you. And with that, we have finally concluded things and we'll be moving on. We'll see you all here soon. Goodbye, my friends. Why choose a Sleep Number smart bed? Can I make my side softer? Can I make my side firmer? Can we sleep cooler? Sleep Number does that. Cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your Sleep Number said it.

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