Gettysburg | Pickett’s Charge | July 3, 1863 | 3:45 - 4:00 pm

As the Confederates approached the Emmitsburg Road, they came under deadly musket fire from infantry and canister fire from artillery batteries. The stout post-and-rail fences on both sides of the road slowed the men down as they were forced to break ranks to climb over the obstacles. As the southerners reformed, Vermont regiments under General George Stannard moved forward and flanked the attackers from the south, while the 8^th Ohio and other regiments did the same from the north.

General Richard Garnett was killed and James Kemper wounded on the slope of Cemetery Ridge. Fired on from three sides, most of Pickett’s men went down in front of John Gibbon’s division, while J. Johnston Pettigrew and Isaac Trimble’s men fell in front of the Union division of Alexander Hays. Only about 200 men pierced the Union line where it bent at an angle along a low stone wall.

In the melee General Lewis Armistead fell mortally wounded. Terrible, ferocious hand-to-hand fighting ensued inside the Union line. Although their line was briefly broken, Federal reinforcements proved to be too much for the Confederates to overcome, and the Union soldiers cheered as their unsuccessful foes fell back. When it ended, 6,000 Confederates, about half the attacking force, were killed, wounded or captured, and the survivors slowly fell back to Seminary Ridge.