Pickett's Charge, also known as the Pickett–Pettigrew–Trimble Charge, was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate General Robert E. Lee against Major General George G. Meade's Union positions on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during the Civil War. Confederate troops made a frontal assault toward the center of Union lines, ultimately being repulsed with heavy casualties. Suffering from a lack of preparation and problems from the onset, the attack was a costly mistake that decisively ended Lee's invasion of the north and forced a retreat back to Virginia.
General Pickett's Famous Charge at Gettysburg drawn by Alfred Waud
Pickett's Charge from a position on the Confederate line looking toward the Union lines, Ziegler's Grove on the left, clump of trees on right, painting by Edwin Forbes
Appearance of Cemetery Hill previous to Pickett's Charge, sketched by Alfred Waud
"A gun and gunners that repulsed Pickett's Charge" (from The Photographic History of the Civil War). This was Andrew Cowan's 1st New York Artillery Battery.
George Gordon Meade was a United States Army Major General who commanded the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War from 1863 to 1865. He fought in many of the key battles of the Eastern theater and defeated the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.
A portrait of Meade by Mathew Brady
Meade photographed by Mathew Brady or Levin C. Handy
General Meade's horse, Old Baldy
Engraving by James E. Kelly of Meade and the Council of War - July 2, 1863