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>> We're standing now on Seminary Ridge not far from Auto Tour stop five, the Virginia Memorial.
More importantly, though, we're standing near a spot called the Point of Woods.
And it would be near this location that on July 3rd, 1863,
Robert E. Lee would watch Pickett's Charge, the climactic moment of the battle.
But to understand Pickett's Charge and that decision that Lee makes to launch it,
you need to go back to the evening hours of July 2nd, 1863.
You would think that the end of the day on July 2nd, Robert E. Lee would be discouraged.
His assaults against the Union position had come up short.
He had failed to destroy the Union army,
and he failed to drive it off Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.
On the contrary, by the end of the day on July 2nd, 1863, even though Robert E. Lee failed
to destroy the Union army, he was actually encouraged.
Confederate assaults to the south gained a key artillery platform along the Emmitsburg Road
near the Peach Orchard.
Confederate assaults at Culp's Hill gained a little foothold, a little lodgment there.
And Robert E. Lee believes that if he can simply continue that attack the next day,
as Lee would write in his official report, "the general plan remained unchanged",
if he simply continues the attacks the next day, he believes he will be victorious.
All he needs to do is ensure what Lee called a "concert of action" took place,
that the Confederates to the south launch their attack at the same time
as the Confederates to the north.
Robert E. Lee would go to bed late at night on July 2nd,
1863 and wake up before dawn on July the 3rd.
And the first sound Robert E. Lee hears is the sound of gunfire near Culp's Hill.
And Lee assumes that, that General Richard Ewell is launching
that attack as he was told to do so.
On the contrary, it's Union troops
on Culp's Hill attacking the Confederates but Lee doesn't know that.
Lee, however, will turn his attention south toward Seminary Ridge
and towards the position of James Longstreet.
And Lee is concerned to see that Longstreet hasn't advanced.
He doesn't hear the sound of gunfire.
He doesn't see smoke rising above the tree line.
And Robert E. Lee will ride south to confront James Longstreet.
And he meets up with Longstreet somewhere near
where we're standing now, not far from the Point of Woods.
And Longstreet would argue that one, he didn't get the order to attack and that two,
he had already assaulted the Union position the previous day
and now Union troops have been in position all night.
They stacked up protection, breastworks, rock walls.
How does Lee expect Longstreet to do better today on July 3rd
with fewer men against an entrenched position.
The sun has barely risen over the battlefield and already Robert E. Lee's plan for July 3rd is
out the window so Lee now has to adapt.
He has to come up with a new plan.
The assaults on Culp's Hill failed.
Longstreet believes an assault to the south won't work so what is Lee to do now?
Well, Lee believes that if either end
of the Union battle line is strong, there must be a weak point.
There must be a weak spot.
Lee believes that weak spot is the center of the Union battle line on Cemetery Ridge.
Lee will then formulate a plan to launch roughly 12,000 Confederate infantrymen
across the field behind me towards the Union position on Cemetery Ridge.
Now 7,000 of these men will be men from A.P. Hill's corp,
men from North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee.
The other 6,000 will be men from George Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps.
These men are all from Virginia.
They're the only troops in the battlefield that haven't seen any combat yet.
One of the great things about being at the Gettysburg battlefield is we can stand here
at the Point of Woods, look across the field, and you can see almost the same thing today
that these individuals saw in 1863.
If 12,000 Confederate infantrymen make an assault across this field,
well, they'll have almost no cover.
There is very little concealment there.
The field is crisscrossed with obstacles and by that I mean fences.
If you're a Confederate soldier moving forward
and you hit a fence line, you have to navigate it.
You can go over it, through it, under it, but you've got to get past it.
It's going to slow these men down.
It's going to disrupt their formation.
And furthermore, they're going up right against the very guns
of the Union position on Cemetery Ridge.
And James Longstreet doesn't think this plan will work.
He doesn't believe it's a good idea.
As Longstreet will later remember, he turned to Robert E. Lee and told Lee
that quote "he had been a soldier his whole life and served from the ranks on up
and that no 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle can take that position."
Longstreet would later say that it would take at least 30,000 men for this attack to work.
Now even though Longstreet is opposed to this attack,
Robert E. Lee will place the entire responsibility for planning it, executing it,
and launching it to James Longstreet, the man who wants to do it the least.
And all throughout the morning hours of July 3rd, 1863, infantry is moving into position,
artillery is being rolled up, and everything hangs in the balance.
Gettysburg National Military Park is one of the best marked battlefields in the world.
Well over 1,300 monuments, markers, and plaques dot the landscape, marking and honoring
where men fought and died July 1, 2, 3, 1863.
The vast majority of these monuments
and memorials honor the Union Army or the Army of the Potomac.
And Gettysburg is originally established as a Union Memorial Park serving
to commemorate the Union victory at Gettysburg.
By 1917, however, the Virginia Memorial is added to the landscape.
It marked close to where Robert E. Lee watched the climax of Pickett's Charge
and is the first Confederate Memorial on the battlefield.
With a statue of Lee on top, sculpted by artist Frederick Sievers, often regarded as one
of the best likenesses ever made of Robert E. Lee, it also honors the rank-and-file Virginians
who fought and died on this battlefield.