Why did Robert E. Lee order Picketts Charge?
Sometimes, even the greatest of military commanders make blunders. Some of these have been monumental and have become historic. There was Napoleon at Waterloo, the Russians at Austerlitz, the English at Hastings, Yammamoto at Midway, and “Bull” Halsey at Leyte Gulf just to name a few. On July 3 1863, in a Pennsylvania wheat field, legendary Confederate field commander Robert E. Lee made one of the greatest military blunders in all of recorded history. In what has become one of the most heart-breaking moments in American military history, nearly 13,000 Americans were ordered to undertake a suicide mission that was not at all indicative of the genius who envisioned it. So, why did Lee, one of the most brilliant military tacticians of all time, order such an attack? What motivated him to do so?
