How did the battle of Gettysburg end?
Things are never quite as clear-cut as we’d like to believe. It is true that Lee’s last roll of the dice on the 3rd of July was the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble assault. (It became known as Pickett’s Charge partly because both Pettigrew and Trimble died in the assault, and partly because Pickett’s wife was such a good publicist). The assault failed, as Longstreet always suspected it would, and as the surviving Confederates streamed back across the field, Lee braced for a counter-attack from Meade. Being the man he was, he was probably disappointed that none came. Meade, who had only been in command of the Army of the Potomac for a few days, knew a great victory when he saw one and was not about to throw it away in an unplanned attack on “the old fox”. So he waited to see what Lee would do, knowing that it was his holding of “the high ground” that had given him that victory. Lee realised soon after hearing the reports of the days assault that he could not defeat Meade in the position he he
