On the afternoon of July 2, General Lee had tried to turn the left flank
of the Union line at Little Round Top and the Peach Orchard, and the
right flank at Culp’s Hill and Spangler’s Spring. Meeting with only
partial success in these attempts, he then planned to strike the center.
First he massed his artillery on Seminary Ridge and across the fields.
Many batteries were hardly more than 800 yards west of here. Beginning
at 1 o’clock they engaged in an artillery duel of nearly 2 hours with
the powerful Union batteries on this ridge. Then 15,000 men, in a battle
line a mile in length, and spearheaded by Pickett’s division, started
from the Confederate lines across the open fields, with the Copse of
Trees as their guide. When they reached the Emmitsburg Road 300 yards
away, the men charged. Canister from Union artillery and concentrated
infantry fire from the Union men at the stone walls soon cut wide gaps
in the Confederate line. They reached the wall, and a small band of men
crossed, but the tide had turned. In Lee’s final great effort, he had
lost nearly 10,000 of his men. The remnants gave way and soon were in
full retreat to the Confederate lines. The counterattack, which Lee
feared, never developed.
The Copse of Trees is at your left, surrounded by the iron fence. The
position of Cushing’s battery of United States artillery, which held the
position at The Angle, is marked by four guns. The statue of General
Meade stands to the right and rear.