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Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863
This book covers a critical part of the Battle of Gettysburg.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
4 people are currently reading
524 people want to read
About the author
George R. Stewart
73 books203 followersGeorge Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his only science fiction novel Earth Abides (1949), a post-apocalyptic novel, for which he won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. It was dramatized on radio's Escape and inspired Stephen King's
The Stand
.
His 1941 novel Storm , featuring as its protagonist a Pacific storm called Maria, prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms and inspired Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to write the song "They Call the Wind Maria" for their 1951 musical "Paint Your Wagon." Storm was dramatized as "A Storm Called Maria" on a 1959 episode of ABC's Disneyland. Two other novels, Ordeal by Hunger (1936) and Fire (1948) also evoked environmental catastrophes.
Stewart was a founding member of the American Name Society in 1956-57, and he once served as an expert witness in a murder trial as a specialist in family names. His best-known academic work is Names on the Land A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (1945; reprinted, New York Review Books, 2008). He wrote three other books on place-names, A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names (1970), Names on the Globe (1975), and American Given Names (1979). His scholarly works on the poetic meter of ballads (published under the name George R. Stewart, Jr.), beginning with his 1922 Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia, remain important in their field.
His 1959 book Pickett's Charge is a detailed history of the final attack at Gettysburg.
His 1941 novel Storm , featuring as its protagonist a Pacific storm called Maria, prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms and inspired Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to write the song "They Call the Wind Maria" for their 1951 musical "Paint Your Wagon." Storm was dramatized as "A Storm Called Maria" on a 1959 episode of ABC's Disneyland. Two other novels, Ordeal by Hunger (1936) and Fire (1948) also evoked environmental catastrophes.
Stewart was a founding member of the American Name Society in 1956-57, and he once served as an expert witness in a murder trial as a specialist in family names. His best-known academic work is Names on the Land A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (1945; reprinted, New York Review Books, 2008). He wrote three other books on place-names, A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names (1970), Names on the Globe (1975), and American Given Names (1979). His scholarly works on the poetic meter of ballads (published under the name George R. Stewart, Jr.), beginning with his 1922 Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia, remain important in their field.
His 1959 book Pickett's Charge is a detailed history of the final attack at Gettysburg.
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July 19, 2023
Surprising how adventures unfold through our reading
I bought a copy of George R. Stewart's Pickett's Charge: A microhistory of the final attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, because a Goodreads friend who I trust for his historical recommendations, Robin Friedman, wrote a very compelling review of Stewart's book. Thanks, Robin!
I've been fascinated with Gettysburg, partly because my father and his generation in my family were WWII veterans and all were intrigued with the Civil War, perhaps because they did not like to talk about what happened in "their own" war. I think the Civil War gave them a distance to talk about the personal passions and the horrors of war without talking about what happened in their theaters of conflict in the 1940s. For example, one uncle was a craftsman who restored vehicle upholstery for a museum and, as a boy, I marveled over a Civil War-era carriage in his workshop. Another uncle, a metal and wood artist, recreated Civil War era guns and equipment for battlefield reconstructions. My first walk across the Gettysburg battlefield was at age 13. I've been back a number of times over the decades.
As Stewart argues in this now-classic 1959 history of "Pickett's Charge," that particular July 3 battle within the Gettysburg engagement was the tipping point in that entire bloody war and, thus, a major tipping point in American history. Stewart and Lincoln, in his famous address, agree on that point. And that's why, as I write this review, I'm impressed that the national nonprofit Braver Angels, which is dedicated to depolarizing political discourse in America, chose Gettysburg for its conference this month (July 2023). At Gettysburg, remembering all that had happened there and Lincoln's memory as well, the Angels launched a new grassroots effort to foster local dialogue groups. I wish them well with that effort.
That's the power of Gettysburg, to this day, and certainly Stewart (1895-1980) would agree. He writes essentially that very message at several points in his history.
So, first, I'm going to recommend that you go read (and "like") Robin's basic review of this book (link above), if you want to know more about historical writing on Pickett's Charge in general and Stewart's book specifically. Because Robin has covered that ground so eloquently, I want to go in a different direction in my own review.
So, second, I want to tell you what else I learned about Stewart, which is the surprising direction this book has taken me. Stewart was raised in a little town near Pittsburgh, the son of an engineer who grew up with dual fascinations about how things work and how literature is written. Stewart's hometown is 200 miles from Gettysburg, and he grew up well aware of that famous place in his home state. But, like me in my own years of study after high school, Stewart was fascinated with learning about how we as humans spin our stories about places. For my own career in journalism and for his career in academia (he taught English at the University of California, Berkeley), we both studied literature.
This led both of us into lifelong explorations of how true stories evolve among us. That's a good way to describe journalism. It also explains why Stewart became one of the nation's leading "toponymists," a term I had not heard in 40 years since I once reported a profile on one of Michigan's leading experts on place names. That's known as toponymy, the study of place names.
This realization about Stewart explained a whole lot about my visceral immersion in his 300-plus pages about Gettysburg. Having first walked the battlefield myself at age 13, I was fascinated by the size and texture and highs and lows of the rocks and rolling hills. I have never forgotten the feel of actually touching the giant boulders and walking in that grass where so many had died, then pondering the placement of all those memorials to men who fought and died by the hundreds.
As I began to read about Stewart's research into understanding the story of physical places, my memory of the telling details in his book lit up in a fresh way. After reading this book, I won't forget how vividly he describes the landscape itself, even the rocks and plants and the wooden rails of fences.
So, now, my adventure continues. I've ordered a copy of Stewart's novel Storm, which I've discovered was a very influential bestseller in 1941. In it, he describes the formation and 12-day movement of a tropical storm. He called his storm "Maria," and anyone who has seen the musical Paint Your Wagon knows how influential that naming turned out to be. In fact, I've read that the current practice of "naming" major storms was influenced by Stewart's novel.
Stewart's writing and his overall career remind me very much of a Michigan writer who was a major influence in my own life: Bruce Catton. I only ever got to see Catton give a reading once before his death in 1978, but I will never forget that experience, either. And if this brief mention of Catton should spark any friends on Goodreads to freshly pick up a Catton Civil War history, I would also hasten to recommend my most beloved Catton book: Waiting for the Morning Train (1972). That's a memoir of Catton's life in Michigan and, like Stewart's careful attention to learning from real physical locations, it's a masterwork of nonfiction reflection on the places that shape our lives.
Thanks Robin for leading me into Stewart—and on a first step toward a new adventure into Stewart's richly diverse works.
I bought a copy of George R. Stewart's Pickett's Charge: A microhistory of the final attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, because a Goodreads friend who I trust for his historical recommendations, Robin Friedman, wrote a very compelling review of Stewart's book. Thanks, Robin!
I've been fascinated with Gettysburg, partly because my father and his generation in my family were WWII veterans and all were intrigued with the Civil War, perhaps because they did not like to talk about what happened in "their own" war. I think the Civil War gave them a distance to talk about the personal passions and the horrors of war without talking about what happened in their theaters of conflict in the 1940s. For example, one uncle was a craftsman who restored vehicle upholstery for a museum and, as a boy, I marveled over a Civil War-era carriage in his workshop. Another uncle, a metal and wood artist, recreated Civil War era guns and equipment for battlefield reconstructions. My first walk across the Gettysburg battlefield was at age 13. I've been back a number of times over the decades.
As Stewart argues in this now-classic 1959 history of "Pickett's Charge," that particular July 3 battle within the Gettysburg engagement was the tipping point in that entire bloody war and, thus, a major tipping point in American history. Stewart and Lincoln, in his famous address, agree on that point. And that's why, as I write this review, I'm impressed that the national nonprofit Braver Angels, which is dedicated to depolarizing political discourse in America, chose Gettysburg for its conference this month (July 2023). At Gettysburg, remembering all that had happened there and Lincoln's memory as well, the Angels launched a new grassroots effort to foster local dialogue groups. I wish them well with that effort.
That's the power of Gettysburg, to this day, and certainly Stewart (1895-1980) would agree. He writes essentially that very message at several points in his history.
So, first, I'm going to recommend that you go read (and "like") Robin's basic review of this book (link above), if you want to know more about historical writing on Pickett's Charge in general and Stewart's book specifically. Because Robin has covered that ground so eloquently, I want to go in a different direction in my own review.
So, second, I want to tell you what else I learned about Stewart, which is the surprising direction this book has taken me. Stewart was raised in a little town near Pittsburgh, the son of an engineer who grew up with dual fascinations about how things work and how literature is written. Stewart's hometown is 200 miles from Gettysburg, and he grew up well aware of that famous place in his home state. But, like me in my own years of study after high school, Stewart was fascinated with learning about how we as humans spin our stories about places. For my own career in journalism and for his career in academia (he taught English at the University of California, Berkeley), we both studied literature.
This led both of us into lifelong explorations of how true stories evolve among us. That's a good way to describe journalism. It also explains why Stewart became one of the nation's leading "toponymists," a term I had not heard in 40 years since I once reported a profile on one of Michigan's leading experts on place names. That's known as toponymy, the study of place names.
This realization about Stewart explained a whole lot about my visceral immersion in his 300-plus pages about Gettysburg. Having first walked the battlefield myself at age 13, I was fascinated by the size and texture and highs and lows of the rocks and rolling hills. I have never forgotten the feel of actually touching the giant boulders and walking in that grass where so many had died, then pondering the placement of all those memorials to men who fought and died by the hundreds.
As I began to read about Stewart's research into understanding the story of physical places, my memory of the telling details in his book lit up in a fresh way. After reading this book, I won't forget how vividly he describes the landscape itself, even the rocks and plants and the wooden rails of fences.
So, now, my adventure continues. I've ordered a copy of Stewart's novel Storm, which I've discovered was a very influential bestseller in 1941. In it, he describes the formation and 12-day movement of a tropical storm. He called his storm "Maria," and anyone who has seen the musical Paint Your Wagon knows how influential that naming turned out to be. In fact, I've read that the current practice of "naming" major storms was influenced by Stewart's novel.
Stewart's writing and his overall career remind me very much of a Michigan writer who was a major influence in my own life: Bruce Catton. I only ever got to see Catton give a reading once before his death in 1978, but I will never forget that experience, either. And if this brief mention of Catton should spark any friends on Goodreads to freshly pick up a Catton Civil War history, I would also hasten to recommend my most beloved Catton book: Waiting for the Morning Train (1972). That's a memoir of Catton's life in Michigan and, like Stewart's careful attention to learning from real physical locations, it's a masterwork of nonfiction reflection on the places that shape our lives.
Thanks Robin for leading me into Stewart—and on a first step toward a new adventure into Stewart's richly diverse works.
July 3, 2025
A Classic Study Of Pickett's Charge
Both as symbol and as history, Pickett's charge, the climactic Southern attack on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, exerts a powerful hold on the American imagination. Although other more recent works may show more ability to assess and choose among competing sources in studying the assault, I doubt that any book cuts to the heart of the charge or presents a clearer picture than George Stewart's "Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg." (1959) I recommend this book to readers interested in serious study of this pivotal and much-discussed event of the Civil War.
I think it valuable to read Stewart's account together with Carol Reardon's study, "Pickett's Charge in History and Memory" (1997) and Earl J. Hess' study "Pickett's Charge-- The Last Attack at Gettysburg" (2001). These three books offer differing perspectives on Pickett's charge and will be invaluable to the student in comparing approaches to the event and to historical writing.
Reardon's book includes little about the Charge itself. She concentrates on the way it has been interpreted over the years (a matter which Stewart also addresses) and on the difficulty of separating fact from memory in determining what happened on the battlefield. The latter point is important to remember in reading Stewart. Some of his sources seem to cross that difficult line between history and recollection in memory.
Hess' account, like Stewart's is a history of the charge which, Hess tells the reader, uses sources and files unavailable to Stewart. Hess, writing 40 years after Stewart, adopts a more critical stance towards the sources and reaches some different conclusions.
Stewart's account is still to be prized for its simplicity and clarity and for the author's zest and empathy for his subject. The book is written in short sections which cover in detail the deliberations of the Confederate leadership on the morning of the attack, the Union defense, the cannonade, the details of the assault by the combined troops of Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble, and the Union's stalwart,heroic defense. The fighting at the "Angle" -- the High Water Mark -- is given in dramatic detail and there is a moving picture of the repulse of the Charge and its aftermath. For better or worse, Stewart lets the sources mostly speak for themselves with less of the skepticism that is to be found in Reardon or Hess.
I found good elementary detail in the book on matters that Hess doesn't cover and that have little relevance to Reardon's story. In particular, Stewart gives a good account of weaponry, its uses, and its limitations, during Pickett's charge. This is an important matter and sometimes overlooked. The reader needs some understanding of the range and uses of the various types of artillery and infantry weapons to understand what happened during the Charge and during the Union defense. Stewart covers this well.
Stewart emphasizes the heroism exhibited during the charge and the seesawing nature of the combat. He seems to me to take the quest for glory and victory exhibited by the troops more at their word than other recent writers who emphasize, rightly enough, the futility, destruction, sheer horror and loss of life resulting from this attack. Stewart sees Pickett's Charge is the actual, not merely the metaphorical, "High-Water Mark" of the Confederate War effort. He believes that if the assault force had, in fact, taken the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge during the attack, the War would have ended with a Southern victory. He also believes that the failure of the assault doomed the Confederate cause. Many other students of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War would disagree with these conclusions. Stewart also states that General Pickett was responsible for the command of the entire assault force -- including the Pettigrew and Trimble troops on Pickett's left. Most students of the Battle reject this conclusion and point to the lack of coordination of the assault as one of the many reasons for its failure.
Stewart tries to be meticulously fair to all participants. He avoids hero worship and "Lost Cause" mythology while still showing his admiration for the participants on both sides in the assault and the valor they displayed. His study may not be the last or most accurate historical study on the events of July 3. But in its simplicity, humor, compassion, and understanding of the troops, Stewart's book taught me a great deal about the final day at Gettysburg.
Robin Friedman
Both as symbol and as history, Pickett's charge, the climactic Southern attack on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, exerts a powerful hold on the American imagination. Although other more recent works may show more ability to assess and choose among competing sources in studying the assault, I doubt that any book cuts to the heart of the charge or presents a clearer picture than George Stewart's "Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg." (1959) I recommend this book to readers interested in serious study of this pivotal and much-discussed event of the Civil War.
I think it valuable to read Stewart's account together with Carol Reardon's study, "Pickett's Charge in History and Memory" (1997) and Earl J. Hess' study "Pickett's Charge-- The Last Attack at Gettysburg" (2001). These three books offer differing perspectives on Pickett's charge and will be invaluable to the student in comparing approaches to the event and to historical writing.
Reardon's book includes little about the Charge itself. She concentrates on the way it has been interpreted over the years (a matter which Stewart also addresses) and on the difficulty of separating fact from memory in determining what happened on the battlefield. The latter point is important to remember in reading Stewart. Some of his sources seem to cross that difficult line between history and recollection in memory.
Hess' account, like Stewart's is a history of the charge which, Hess tells the reader, uses sources and files unavailable to Stewart. Hess, writing 40 years after Stewart, adopts a more critical stance towards the sources and reaches some different conclusions.
Stewart's account is still to be prized for its simplicity and clarity and for the author's zest and empathy for his subject. The book is written in short sections which cover in detail the deliberations of the Confederate leadership on the morning of the attack, the Union defense, the cannonade, the details of the assault by the combined troops of Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble, and the Union's stalwart,heroic defense. The fighting at the "Angle" -- the High Water Mark -- is given in dramatic detail and there is a moving picture of the repulse of the Charge and its aftermath. For better or worse, Stewart lets the sources mostly speak for themselves with less of the skepticism that is to be found in Reardon or Hess.
I found good elementary detail in the book on matters that Hess doesn't cover and that have little relevance to Reardon's story. In particular, Stewart gives a good account of weaponry, its uses, and its limitations, during Pickett's charge. This is an important matter and sometimes overlooked. The reader needs some understanding of the range and uses of the various types of artillery and infantry weapons to understand what happened during the Charge and during the Union defense. Stewart covers this well.
Stewart emphasizes the heroism exhibited during the charge and the seesawing nature of the combat. He seems to me to take the quest for glory and victory exhibited by the troops more at their word than other recent writers who emphasize, rightly enough, the futility, destruction, sheer horror and loss of life resulting from this attack. Stewart sees Pickett's Charge is the actual, not merely the metaphorical, "High-Water Mark" of the Confederate War effort. He believes that if the assault force had, in fact, taken the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge during the attack, the War would have ended with a Southern victory. He also believes that the failure of the assault doomed the Confederate cause. Many other students of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War would disagree with these conclusions. Stewart also states that General Pickett was responsible for the command of the entire assault force -- including the Pettigrew and Trimble troops on Pickett's left. Most students of the Battle reject this conclusion and point to the lack of coordination of the assault as one of the many reasons for its failure.
Stewart tries to be meticulously fair to all participants. He avoids hero worship and "Lost Cause" mythology while still showing his admiration for the participants on both sides in the assault and the valor they displayed. His study may not be the last or most accurate historical study on the events of July 3. But in its simplicity, humor, compassion, and understanding of the troops, Stewart's book taught me a great deal about the final day at Gettysburg.
Robin Friedman
April 1, 2009
I've got to say that I don't really understand the motivation behind marching a mile across open terrain towards grapeshot and musket fire, but hey that's just me.....this book is a wonderful collection of first person narratives about the day and its miserable failure.
December 27, 2022
Although the book provided intimate details of both the Confederate and Union officers and key movements during this one battle, it came off as a bit dry in comparing who behaved valiantly and who performed poorly - and then compared their relative losses.
In the end, there was a lot of confusion about who did what because the battle wasn’t well documented and the Confederates couldn’t decide who to hold responsible for this major loss and the beginning of the end for the South.
In the end, there was a lot of confusion about who did what because the battle wasn’t well documented and the Confederates couldn’t decide who to hold responsible for this major loss and the beginning of the end for the South.
June 3, 2024
An excellent account of the final day at Gettysburg, with a narrative that weaves personal accounts, analysis, and the Big Picture. This edition also has many excellent maps.
Recommended for anyone interested in the ACW and Gettysburg ... even for anyone interested in well written history.
Recommended for anyone interested in the ACW and Gettysburg ... even for anyone interested in well written history.
July 23, 2024
Excellent review of this small aspect of a larger battle. Stewart rights soberly and occasionally with humor. He has striven to be as objective as possible while making evaluations of the extant evidence.
June 29, 2024
A little bit boring for me
July 26, 2025
An incredible and easy read. I really enjoyed Stewart's historiography throughout the book and where he explained how he went about his research.
November 9, 2025
I love reading about the Civil War and this book describes how both sides fought the on that day of July 3, 1863. It was well written and I couldn’t put it down.
February 19, 2020
Great read that paints a really stirring picture of one of the most dramatic moments in American history. Some more modern works have been able to add a bit more from the historical record that’s arisen in the last 60 years. If you’re into troop positions and movements, then those works are also a bit more helpful in that regard. But no regrets reading this great account that has stood the test of time!
November 30, 2013
Excellent book covering the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, specifically the Confederate assault on the center of the Union lines. Not sure what good it does for me to give a review of a book published in 1959, so I'll give you a small excerpt from Part IX - Repulse:
"There was more than a little expression of chivalrous feeling. Union troops shared the contents of canteens and haversacks with the prisoners. One Confederate remembered, "Many of them taking off their hats as we went to the rear, and remarking that we had 'done well,' 'No troops could have done more,' and then offering us a part of their rations"
"There was more than a little expression of chivalrous feeling. Union troops shared the contents of canteens and haversacks with the prisoners. One Confederate remembered, "Many of them taking off their hats as we went to the rear, and remarking that we had 'done well,' 'No troops could have done more,' and then offering us a part of their rations"
April 12, 2007
The book is just what it presents itself as; A microhistory of Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. It was superb but I expect that only people who are interested in the Civil War and/or military and/or American history enthusiasts would really enjoy it.
August 20, 2014
An excellent study of Longstreet's Assault. Superbly studied all aspects of the attack: its planning stages, the bombardment, the execution of the assault, and its ultimate failure. Still holds up well as a fine scholarly overview of July 3, 1863 even today over 50 years after its publication.
April 26, 2021
Available at Open Library:
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23213...
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23213...
July 11, 2012
A must read to understand the thought process of battle. Very compelling.
October 9, 2012
an hour by hour microcosmic look at one of the most famous attacks in US History. Told in a very engaging and conversational style- this is a must for Civil War students.
June 16, 2014
This is a clear, easy to read, objective book about the Battle of Gettysburg. If you want to know what happened, hour by hour, reading this book is a must.
October 31, 2014
A detailed, objective look at the infamous assault. This is my favorite book I have read about Pickett's Charge. It is presented very clearly and the whole book is fascinating to read.
October 5, 2024
A micro history of July 3 1863 - Sharp read
September 11, 2014
Excellent, made you feel like you where there. Thanks Scott for the recommendation!!
May 19, 2018
excellent book, highly reco
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews