Editing Battle of Gettysburg (section)

===Pickett's Charge===
{{Main|Pickett's Charge}}
Around 3{{nbsp}}p.m.,<ref>Coddington, 402; McPherson, 662; Eicher, 546; Trudeau, 484; Walsh 281.</ref> the cannon fire subsided, and between 10,500 and 12,500 Confederate soldiers<ref group=fn>Writing about the number of attackers in the charge, Carol Reardon, in ''Pickett's Charge in History & Memory'', at page 6, wrote "Modern histories have reduced the number to a range somewhere between 10,500 and 13,000. No one 'knows' the number." Eicher, ''The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War,'' at p. 544 gives the same range as Reardon does for the number of attackers. Stephen W. Sears in ''Gettysburg'' at p. 407 wrote "...George Meade thus had some 13,000 troops - as it happened, just about the same number as stepped off in Pickett's Charge..." Alan C. Guelzo, in ''Gettysburg: The Last Invasion,'' at p. 393 wrote "There would be around 13,000 men in the attack, if all of them could be gotten to move." He also notes in a footnote that estimates of the number vary widely. Among those giving a higher numbers of attackers, neither Guelzo nor Sears appear to take into account [[Ed Bearss]]'s statement in ''Receding Tide'' p. 366 that Confederate casualties from Union Army artillery "overshoot"  into the Confederate soldiers staged behind the front line before the charge amounted to almost 600 men. [[George R. Stewart]], in ''Pickett's Charge: A microhistory of the final attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863'' (1959), p. 173, after totaling the strength in the divisions and brigades in the charge considering earlier losses gives the lowest estimate of "troops in the assaulting column...at 10,500."  [[Gary W. Gallagher]], Stephen D. Engle, Robert K. Krick & Joseph T. Glatthaar in ''The American Civil War: This Might Scourge of War'' at page 180 wrote "About 12,000 Confederates tried, in the most renowned attack in all of American military history." Earl J. Hess in ''Pickett's Charge&ndash;The Last Attack at Gettysburg'' p. 335 wrote of "11,830 men engaged" in the charge. Noah Andre Trudeau wrote in ''Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage'', p. 477, that with the addition of the very late advance of the brigades of Brig. Gen. [[Cadmus M. Wilcox]] and Brig. Gen. [[Edward A. Perry]] (led by Col. David Lang), the number of attackers could be said to approach 15,000, but with their subtraction, because the main charge had already been repulsed  and accounting for Confederate casualties caused by Union Army artillery "overshoot", the number of attackers "approaches 11,800". Most references do not mention and cannot be adding about 1,400 men of the brigades of Brig. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox and Brig. Gen. Edward Perry, led by Col. [[David Lang (Civil War)|David Lang]], who started after the main charge had been repulsed with great casualties. Lang's (Perry's) three Florida regiments suffered hundreds of casualties, including many taken prisoner. Wilcox saw the futility of the attack and ordered his men back when he discovered the main attack had been repulsed and they would receive no artillery or other support. The brigade lost about 200 men before turning back. Gottfried, pp. 581, 588. McPherson, p. 662, gives a larger number than other modern historians of 14,000 Confederates going forward in the charge, scarcely half of whom returned. This may count the Wilcox and Perry (Lang) brigades, although he does not mention them.</ref> stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery Ridge.<ref>Wert, p.194</ref> Pickett's division role in leading the attack has led to the attack to be known as [[Pickett's Charge]].<ref>Sears, pp. 358–359.</ref>

As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and the Little Round Top area,<ref>Wert, pp. 198–199.</ref> and musket and canister fire from Hancock's II Corps.<ref>Wert, pp.205–207.</ref> In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment (to save it for the infantry assault, which Meade had correctly predicted the day before), leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out. However, they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results.<ref name="McPherson, p. 662">McPherson, p. 662.</ref>

Although the Union line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called [[The Angle]] in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repelled. The farthest advance, by Brigadier General [[Lewis A. Armistead]]'s brigade of Pickett's division at the Angle, is referred to as the "[[high-water mark of the Confederacy]]".<ref>McPherson, pp. 661–663; Clark, pp. 133–144; Symonds, pp. 214–241; Eicher, pp. 543–549.</ref> Union and Confederate soldiers locked in hand-to-hand combat, attacking with their rifles, bayonets, rocks and even their bare hands. Armistead ordered his Confederates to turn two captured cannons against Union troops, but discovered that there was no ammunition left, the last [[Canister shot|double canister]] shots having been used against the charging Confederates. Armistead was mortally wounded shortly afterward. Nearly one half of the Confederate attackers did not return to their own lines.<ref>Glatthaar, p. 281.</ref> Pickett's division lost about two-thirds of its men, and all three brigadiers were killed or wounded.<ref name="McPherson, p. 662"/>