grounds that day. Pickett was a man who had moved from area to area unsure of.
where he should really be in rank. The Confederates marched across about a mile.
of open ground between where the two armies were stationed. Then the Union.
army resumed fire, killing thousands. When the Confederates reached 200 yards.
the Union rained fire onto the remaining soldiers. Only a few hundred actually.
reached Union line and even then the fighting was over in 30 minutes. Picketts.
Charge ended in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. The South suffered in some.
28,000 casualties and the North had 23,000. Lee had lost more than a third of his.
army and on July 4, 1863, the confederacy began its retreat to Virginia. The war.
was to go on for two more horrifying and sad years but the Confederacy never.
recovered from the losses of Gettysburg. And though the deep wounded of.
Confederate military might, all who had been to Gettysburg, would remember.
The departure of the armies did not state the end of the struggle at.
Gettysburg. Homes, churches and farm buildings were filled with wounded.
soldiers, left to the care of nearby townsmen, surgeons, and Gettysburg doctors.
Fences, crops, and buildings were destroyed. The land was covered with graves of.
men who had died in the war. People with god-awful wounds were everywhere and.
those who did have a grave were buried shallow. It would be years before the.
County and its citizens could recover from the effects of the battle, truly, many.
never did. Some even packed their things, sold their land, and moved away from.
this tretchured land that held nothing but sadness and terrible thoughts. A survivor.
described the battle like this, "Men fire into each other's face, not five feet.
apart. men going down on their hands and knees spinning like tops, throwing.
out their arms, falling; legless, armless, headless. There are ghastly heaps of dead.
men." Others rebuilt their lives and a few made efforts to memorialize the men.
