biography
| name: |
Pickett, George Edward
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1825–75)
|
| biography:
| US soldier, born in Richmond, Virginia, USA. An 1846 West Point graduate (he ranked last in his class of 59), he served in the Mexican War (1846–7) and later fought Indians on the frontier. Resigning in 1861 to enter Confederate service, he saw combat at Seven Pines and Gaines's Mill, and was promoted to major-general. At Gettysburg on the third day, he was ordered by General James Longstreet, himself under General Robert E Lee, to form the brigades for one last desperate charge across an open field. The Confederates suffered disastrous casualties while being repulsed, and although he had participated, it was thereafter unfairly known as ‘Pickett's Charge’. He saw further action at New Bern, NC, Drewry's Bluff, VA, and at Five Forks, VA, right to the end of the Appomattox campaign. Greatly respected, after the war he turned down a commission from the Khedive of Egypt and a US marshal's post from President Ulysses S Grant, and remained an insurance agent in Virginia. |
|
|
