The Charge of Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble was the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863)

The Charge of Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble was the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), the most disastrous infantry attack of the American Civil War, and largest infantry battle on the American continent ever! Why Lee and Longstreet decided to take an inferior and less well-supplied Northern army to fight a superior force who would establish a well-fortified, entrenched defensive position will be a subject of speculation for all time.

Lee's generals argued against this frontal assault on a position where the Union was on high ground and with a mile of open terrain for the South to cover before the enemy could be engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Longstreet argued vehemently against the attack, so much so that he bordered on insubordination. Longstreet is quoted in numerous sources as saying "No 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle could take that position."