https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pain-in-the-neck-at-gettysburg/I was at this reenactment when this happened, but was about a mile away at the time. Had a friend who thought he was Robert E. Lee reincarnate. He could have passed for his twin and was deeply involved in reenactments. Even died on Robert E. Lees birthday. He was there that day.
The "charge" was in part the result of poor intelligence and a flawed decision. Most battles have the same flaws but this one stood out more than most. Charging across such open ground, depleted the troops to the point that when they arrive they were a spent force. What a waste of men and courage. Walk across any Civil War battle ground and just think what it was like with bullets flying by, men massed to stand their ground. And cannon shot would mow them down by the scores. Solid shot was bad, but canister shot was devastating and Pickett's men endure both for 3/4 of a mile.
Funny thing is my family all fought for the North, but most of those into reenactments, over the years, are for the South. I am sure a few family members alive during the Civil War, who did not serve at the time, were Southern sympathizer on one side of the family. Maryland was a border state, and a slave state, with many residents of the Eastern Shore having more ties to the South than the North. "Maryland, My Maryland" was the state song of Maryland from 1939 until 2021 and was written to entice Southern defection in the Civil War. Lincoln flooded the state with troops and made any real chance of succession impossible.
