Chapter Eleven
Pickett’s Charge – Day Three
The Union forces slow their rate of cannon fire and to conserve ammunition, they cease their firing altogether. The Yankee commanders think it will fool the Rebels in to believing the Confederates have knocked out their cannons. The ruse works that is precisely what the Rebs think.
General Pickett slowly walks his horse along the long line of his battle ready men until he reaches Longstreet, he asks, "General shall I advance?" Longstreet, now overwhelmed with grief and despondency, does not look at Pickett, with head bowed, he lifts his hand into the air. This simple gesture tells General Pickett he has his orders.
CHARGE
Returning to the front of his men, General Pickett turns in the saddle, removes his saber from its sheath, and holds it high above his head yelling, "Attention Battalion! Dress on the colors! Forward! March! Charge the enemy and remember old Virginia!’ He and his men begin a slow and deliberate advance toward the Union Army nearly a mile away on Cemetery Ridge. Turning to look back, he sees over twelve thousand Southerners stretching a mile from one end to the other. The men who survive that day say there was almost total silence as line after line of men in perfect military alignment march forward, without a word being said, to their certain death. The only noise that could be heard was the sound of the soldier’s gear rubbing against their bodies and the footfalls trampling on the grass of the field. The Union men watch the wave of men in gray in amazed awe.
In the front row of soldiers are Luke and Matthew advancing toward the Union’s strong, fortified position. Luke turns and speaks to Matthew, “Be brave little brother, looks like we’re going to get to ‘see the elephant’ up close and personal.”
The order is given, ‘Advance at a quick-step.’ Luke glances over at Matthew again. As they begin the slow trot, it is a 90-degree, humid day; sweat is dripping from the end of Matthew’s nose. “Courage, Matthew, courage!” Luke is trying to bolster his younger brother’s resolve, but Luke himself is so scared he does not believe he can put one foot in front of the other. He wants to retreat, but it is impossible. Beside him and behind him are his friends; some are family and others neighbors from back home. He cannot, he will not be branded a coward. He must, in spite of his fear, keep advancing toward the Yankee enemy.
‘Halt! Prepare to fire by battalion! Battalion! Ready! Aim! FIRE!’
Knowing Matthew is ‘seeing the elephant’ for the first time Luke says to him as they halt, “Matt, throw away that knapsack, your blanket and anything else you won’t need right now. Keep only your gun, bayonet, cartridge box, powder patches and canteen. Stay low, and when I say ‘run’ you run as if the Devil himself is after you, run like you have never run before, understand?”
Matt is too scared to answer, he merely nods.
As they begin to get in the range of the Federal cannons, Luke realizes the Yankees are using grapeshot; a cannon ball type instrument of death packed full of gunpowder and lead balls the size of marbles. When fired at close range men, horribly wounded, drop by the dozens when the balls explode.
They are getting nearer – the deadly musket shots are coming at them in volleys. Men are falling in masses as the rifle and cannon fire cut big swaths in the advancing line of Rebel men.
The bugler is given the order to blow, ‘Charge Bayonets! Forward at the double quick! March!’ Amid the screams, yells, and cannon firings the sound of the bugles can hardly be heard. Looking forward, Luke sees the split rail fence running beside the Emmitsburg Road. Men are lying all over the ground; many have horrendous wounds, others are missing arms or legs. He stumbles over the upper torso of a young soldier, a boy actually, with his face contorted and frozen in the grip of death. His deep, blue eyes stare out into eternity. Tender eyes his mother will never see again. Some of the men lying face down in the dirt does not appear to be hurt, they are too paralyzed with fear to get up and continue. He does not say it, but Luke empathizes with them.
Luke sees he and Matthew are only a few hundred yards from the slight protection the split rail fencing might offer. “Run! Matt run! Come on Matt... RUN! Try to get to the cover of the fence!” They, along with hundreds of others turn their orderly march into a headlong flight at full speed toward the totally inadequate protection of the fence. Luke has sprinted at full speed many times before, but this time he believes his lungs are going to explode. He sucks hard trying to pull air in, his forage cap flies off as he jumps over dead and dying men on the ground, but he keeps running. The soldier running directly in front of him takes a musket bullet to the head. Blood, brains, and hair are blown into Luke’s face. He can hardly see for the blood in his eyes of the unfortunate young lad, but he continues to run. He cannot wipe his face for fear of losing a step in his mad dash for the fence. Stride for stride brother Matt is keeping up with him. “Run Matt run! We’re goin’ to make it!”
Just a few minutes earlier, the pride of the Army of Northern Virginia had been a magnificent line of Confederate Infantry. Now it is a ghastly hodgepodge of bodies without legs, arms without bodies, and the mortally wounded lying all over the field. The cream of Robert E. Lee’s Army lie mutilated and mangled upon the battlefield between Cemetery and Seminary Ridges. The remainder is huddled in frightened masses behind the inadequate protection of the wooden, split-rail fence.
A number of men try to climb over the wooden fence. Nearing the top rail they are being exposed to the murderous volleys of musket fire coming from the Union line. Most do not get to the far side. They are being killed or wounded and collapsing in a pile around the un-injured that cowers on the ground at the base of the fence. Confederate officers move up and down the line of scared men hiding behind the fence urging them, at gunpoint, to advance. The men are hesitant but respond. As if in a wave, they get up and begin climbing the fence once again. Luke throws his leg over the top rail extending his hand trying to help Matthew mount the bottom rail. Matt emits a deafening scream. He apparently has been hit. He tries to grab Luke’s hand, but before he can grasp Luke’s outthrust fingers Matt collapses in a heap on the ground. Luke jumps from the fence, pulls Matthew up to a sitting position, but an officer forces Luke at gunpoint back over the fence. He has to leave his brother and advance toward the Union defenses. Pickett’s Charge should be better described as Pickett’s Slaughter but regardless it continues.
As they near the Union line, the Confederates continue screaming their infamous Rebel yell, firing their rifles and running faster and faster. The leading elements of the charge are now beginning to engage the Union forces in hand-to-hand combat. Up and down the long line of Yankee soldiers, each Company’s bugler can be heard above the roar of battle, blowing ‘Infantry Commence Firing.’ The men of both armies fight with bayonets, knives, and rifle butts, some even throw stones. It is a battle for survival. Swords sever arms, hatchets split open skulls, and the ground is saturated with a ghastly, red color as if it had been raining blood. Oh, the smell, a nauseous smell. A scent the men had encountered before, but never a stench with such a pungent, sickening odor. The repugnant smell permeated the air as though they are fighting enveloped in a smell as thick as fog. If the South had not retreated that appalling day, not a man on either side would have gone unscathed.
SPAKE AS A DRAGON
General George Meade is not the only commander on the field of death this day with Biblical scriptures on his mind. General Robert E. Lee stands this third day of the battle on the opposite edge of the battlefield with his spyglass to his eye. As he watches the destruction of his army, he recalls a verse:
“And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.” (Ex 19:12)
The noise coming from the battle was a tremendous roar; individual sounds could not be distinguished. General Lee had seen other battles but none this awesome or formidable. Watchin
g in awe he says:
“...I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he SPAKE AS A DRAGON.” (Revelation 13:11)
General Lee, a deeply religious man who reads his Bible daily, has always believed the reference in the Book of Revelations about the ‘two horns like a lamb’ was a reference to the United States. The lamb is a meek, tender loving animal when provoked will use his two horns as a battering ram. Today the Battle of Gettysburg was in its third day, and the Ram of the Union Army is battering his Army of Northern Virginia to pieces. General Lee has never seen a dragon, but he believes if one exists its voice surely would sound exactly like the terrible roar of battle taking place before his very eyes - a roar he imagines, that surely ‘SPAKE AS A DRAGON!’
After an hour or so of fierce hand-to-hand fighting, General Meade sends up reinforcements, outnumbered the shattered Southern forces start to lose ground and begin to retreat. Pickett’s Charge is now turning to Pickett’s Defeat. Not only is Lee’s invincible army beaten, some of the men are throwing down their arms and surrendering. Luke, although only slightly wounded, does not discard his weapon nor surrender, but never the less, is among the men captured. As the men in blue lead him away, he stares intently at the body littered field toward the Emmitsburg Road and the rail fence, looking for Matthew. They are countless, so many dead and wounded he cannot distinguish merely one body from among the endless piles of carnage. He passes a Union Colonel watching the Confederates as they struggle to return to the safety of their lines. Luke reaches out, grabs the sleeve of the Colonel’s coat and begs for a brief look through his spyglass, “Please, sir I plead with you! I seek my brother...can I just have one look through your glass...just one look? He was badly wounded!” With a look of disgust, the Colonel jerks his coat sleeve free, turns from Luke and walks away as though some vermin had just touched his arm.
The glorious Army of Northern Virginia began the charge with twelve thousand brave and fearless men now hardly six thousand of them are barely able to walk, crawl or drag themselves back to the woods of Seminary Ridge.
General Lee rides Traveller out onto the gallant field of blood and valor. Meeting the straggling remnants of his once glorious Army of Northern Virginia, he speaks to them sorrowful, "It is my fault, it is all my fault!"
He waits patiently on General Pickett; finally, he sees him. Pickett’s face is blacken from the gunpowder, his uniform torn, his hat missing, blood oozes from the shoulder of his mount ‘Old Black.’ Lee approaches and addresses him, "General upon my shoulders rests the blame. Please assembly your Division we must provide for a counter-attack."
“General Lee, I have no Division!”