On July 3, 1863, Lee decided that the Union forces only needed one more push to dislodge them from that little ridge known as Cemetery Ridge. He decided to march his freshest men, part of Longstreet's Corp, across open fields against the middle of the Union line which had not seen much action. The troops were partly composed of Maj. Gen. George Pickett's division, and the march of some of the cream of the Southern army became known as Pickett's Charge. The "charge" consisted of 12,500 men of whom only 5,000 returned. Of Pickett's 5,000 men, only 800 reported for duty the next day. He never forgave Lee for destroying his division. In order to get at the Union forces in the middle of the line, the men had to cross about a mile of open field which was crossed by the Emmitsburg Road which was a depressed dirt road that had a wooden fence on both sides. They started out in perfect formation. Then the Union artillery opened fire. If they made it to the first fence at the Emmitsburg Road, they had to cross the fence and gather the courage to cross the other fence into the deadly fire of the Union men waiting for them behind a wall -- since they then came within range of the rifles. Only about 200 men made it to the wall.      I've been told that there was a special on a cable network which studied where the dead bodies were found. As a result of their study, they determined that many of the men made it across the first fence at the Emmitsburg Road, but very few made the attempt to cross the second fence. Of course, this will be a matter of debate for a long time.      The one thing that is I was impressed with when I stood there was how close the Emmitsburg Road was to the wall that was the objective of the "charge." The Emmitsburg Road angles from the south and draws closer and closer to the Union position. Note that you can see the Virginia monument (which has a statue of Robert E Lee on a horse) in the distance. It is supposed to be where Lee stood to watch the charge.

The monument of the man is the Philadelphia Brigade monument.

Monument at the High Water Mark.

Monument at the High Water Mark.