Gettysburg's best Angle

          In the old days, when news stories were longer than 140 characters, journalists knew that without a good angle they had no story. Editors asked reporters repeatedly what the reporter was working on and what the angle was.

          If the reporter answered that he/she wasn’t sure what the angle was, the editor would say, “You don’t have a story yet. Keep digging.” If the reporter answered that he/she had several possible angles, the editor would sometimes say the magic words, “Write the main and gimme a sidebar.”

          Your loyal blogger has found the same to be true of Pickett’s Charge: The Angle is the key to the story. Of all the locations along the Federal line on July 3, 1863 in the fields outside Gettysburg, the spot where that little rock wall made a 90-degree turn east-west for a hundred yards or so before another 90-degree turn to head north-south again is the key to the story.

          The entire day, both for the Federals and Confederates, can be viewed and understood from the standpoint of what happened at The Angle.

          Some will disagree, and many of those who feel differently are more learned on the subject than this writer. However, none of them write this blog and, thus, they are wrong.

          It is true that the Confederates involved in the attack that day were aiming, generally, toward a group of trees a bit behind the Federal line. This area has come down through history to be known as the Copse of Trees. It is said to be the so-called high water mark of the war for the Confederacy.

This image, from roughly halfway between Seminary Ridge, where the Confederates started their attack, and Cemetery
Ridge, where the Federals waited, shows two key points. The group of trees in the center of the horizon is the Copse
of Trees. The two trees to your left mark The Angle. In order to avoid confusion, many of the monuments along the
Ridge have been eliminated from the image. The fence marks the Emmitsburg Road.

          But Confederate General Lewis Armistead didn’t lead a group of Confederates through the Federal line at the Copse of Trees. Armistead and a group of southerners burst through a gap in the blue line at The Angle, roughly a hundred yards north of the copse. For this observer, the southern high water mark at Gettysburg was at The Angle.

          For what it is worth, it says here that the Confederates lost the Battle of Gettysburg on the second day and started along the road toward losing the Civil War with the wasteful attack on the third. But that’s a blog for a different day.

          Generally speaking, George Meade’s boys in blue detected, inspected and then rejected the attack by Robert E. Lee’s gray guys along the Cemetery Ridge line. Most Confederates failed to reach the line of defenders along the ridge. Some did in a few locations.

          But there was nothing like the penetration perpetrated by Armistead and his men. The estimates your loyal blogger has seen put the number of Confederate attackers to rush through the Federal line at The Angle between 100 and 200 men. For the sake of simplification, let us make the number 150.

          Many of Armistead’s attackers were killed shortly after pushing their way across the line, some were wounded and others captured. By most accounts, the Confederates lost steam when Armistead went down with a mortal wound as he rested his hand on a Union artillery piece.

          The events at The Angle represent the entire day for both armies. The Federal army stoutly defended its line of defense. The Confederates mounted a determined attack and briefly broke through the stout Union defense.



This image, collected from a point slightly north of The
Angle, shows all the monuments to Federal regiments
that were near the Union line on Cemetery Ridge.

          But Meade’s men had reserves waiting the plug any leaks in the wall, so to speak, while Lee’s army had far fewer reserves to commit and did not commit what few they had to the attack.

          That’s Gettysburg in a nutshell, isn’t it? Go back to the first day. The Confederates had the Feds on the run but failed to take advantage of an opportunity at the end of the day and did not seize the high ground. Most of the Confederate units on site were exhausted and could not push anymore. The remainder of the army was a day’s march or more away.

          The Federals were still feeding regiments into the area as the first day ended.

          Lee’s army was generally successful on the second day. It pushed the Army of the Potomac off of most of the engagement points on the Southern half of the battlefield.

          But the Army of Northern Virginia could not win the day at Little Round Top, generally because the bluecoats kept finding reinforcements at critical moments and the graycoats did not.

          By the time Armistead stepped away from Seminary Ridge toward the Union defenses on the third day of the battle, he was destined for the same fate his comrades met the previous two days: His attack created an opportunity that no Confederate could take advantage of.

          The story of The Angle is more than just the high water mark for the Confederates at Gettysburg. It is a microcosm of the battle as a whole.

          Thanks for reading.