Gettysburg Day 3

July 3, 1863 found Robert E. Lee ready to take one more gamble for decisive victory at Gettysburg. For many a Southerner it is a day of everlasting fame and sadness. There was significant fighting between Rebel and Union cavalry east of town, and the two sides grappled again on Culp's Hill, but what everyone knows about this day is the famous assault known as Pickett's Charge. Actually, a general by the name of Johnston Pettigrew from my own alma mater the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also commanded a large portion of the Rebel charge. Lee's forces dressed their ranks and marched splendidly across the mile of open ground between their position on Seminary Ridge and the Yankee soldiers waiting for them behind a low stone wall on Cemetery Ridge. Some reached the wall, but most were cut short by Union artillery and riflemen on the approach. Lee lost many a good soldier that day, and the beleagured Army of the Potomac finally got its great victory. Photographers will find many attractive monuments and stirring scenes for their cameras near The Angle, but do not neglect the lower end of Cemetery Ridge, where the golden light of early and late day create terrific photo opportunities among the fields, cannons, and scattered monuments.