position for its real work. The close
massed column of assault, well led, gallantly moved to the charge
down the slope and across the open ground, directed against a
portion of the Union line partially on Cemetery Ridge. The supporting
Confederate batteries now almost ceased firing. As the assaulting
column went forward the Union guns turned on it, cutting gaps in
it at each discharge. These were generally closed from the support,
but when the head of the column got well up to, and in one place
into, the Union breastworks, the fire of the Union infantry became
irresistible. Longstreet ordered the divisions of McLaws and Hood,
holding his line on the right of the assaulting column, to advance
to battle. Union forces moved out and attacked Pickett's supporting
brigade on the right. Under the fierce fire of infantry and
artillery the head of the great Confederate column fast melted
away. Generals Garnett, Pender, Semmes, Armistead, and Barksdale
were killed, Generals Kemper, Trimble, Pettigrew, and many other
officers fell wounded, and many Confederate colors were shot down.
The Confederates who penetrated the Union line were killed or
captured. When success was demonstrated to be impossible, Pickett
ordered a retreat, and such of his men as were not cut off by the
fire that continued to sweep the field escaped to cover behind the
batteries, leaving the broad track of the assaulting column strewn
with dead, dying, and wounded. The great battle was now substantially
ended. Meade did not draw out his army and pursue the broken
Confederates, as their leaders expected him to do. Lee, while
personally aiding in restoring the lines of his shattered troops,
recognized the fearful consequences of Pickett's assault, and
magnanimously said to an officer, "_It is all my fault_."

Generals Hancock and Gibbon and many important Union officers were
wounded. This, together with other causes, prevented Meade from
assuming the offensive. Two-thirds of the Confederate Army had
not been engaged actively in the last struggle, and the day was
too far spent for Meade to make the combinations indispensable to
the success of an immediate attack.

Longstreet withdrew McLaws and Hood from their advance position.
Kilpatrick moved his cavalry division to attack the Confederate
right, and Farnsworth's cavalry brigade made a gallant charge on
the rear of Longstreet's infantry, riding over detachments until
the dashing leader lost his l