George Pickett George Edward Pickett ( January 16 , 1825 – July 30 , 1875 ) was a career United States Army officer who became a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . He is best remembered for his participation in the futile and bloody assault at the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name , Pickett ' s Charge . Early life . Pickett was born in Richmond , Virginia , the first of the eight children of Robert and Mary Pickett , a prominent family of Old Virginia of English origins , and one of the " first families " of Virginia . He was the cousin of future Confederate general Henry Heth . He went to Springfield , Illinois , to study law , but at the age of 17 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy . Legend has it that Pickett ' s West Point appointment was secured for him by Abraham Lincoln , but this is largely believed to be a story circulated by his widow following his death . Lincoln , as an Illinois state legislator , could not nominate candidates , although he did give the young man advice after he was accepted ; Pickett was actually appointed by Illinois Congressman John T . Stuart , a friend of Pickett ' s uncle and a law partner of Abraham Lincoln . Pickett was popular as a cadet at West Point . He was mischievous and a player of pranks , " . . . a man of ability , but belonging to a cadet set that appeared to have no ambition for class standing and wanted to do only enough study to secure their graduation . " At a time when often a third of the class washed out before graduation , Pickett persisted , working off his demerits and doing enough in his studies to graduate , ranking last out of the 59 surviving students in the Class of 1846 . It is a position held with some backhanded distinction , referred to today as the " goat " , both for its stubbornness and tenacity . The position usually relegated its holder to a posting commanding infantry in some far away outpost , which if no conflict arose , would offer little opportunity to advance . Two of the most famous " goats " were Pickett and George Armstrong Custer ( as was also Pickett ' s cousin , Harry Heth ) . All of them had the good fortune to graduate shortly after a war broke out , when the army had a sudden need for officers , greatly improving their opportunities . Early military career . Pickett was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the U . S . 8th Infantry Regiment . He soon gained national recognition in the Mexican - American War when he carried the American colors over the parapet during the Battle of Chapultepec . Wounded at the base of the wall , Pickett ' s friend and colleague Lt . James Longstreet handed him the colors . Pickett carried the flag over the wall and fought his way to the roof of the palace , unfurling it over the fortress and announcing its surrender . He received a brevet promotion to captain following this action . In 1849 , while serving on the Texas frontier after the war , he was promoted to first lieutenant and then to captain in the 9th U . S . Infantry in 1855 . In 1853 , Pickett challenged a fellow junior officer , future Union general and opposing Civil War commander Winfield Scott Hancock , to a duel ; ( they had met only briefly when Hancock was passing through Texas ) . Hancock declined the duel , a response not unlikely as dueling had fallen out of favor at the time . In January 1851 , Pickett married Sally Harrison Minge , the daughter of Dr . John Minge of Virginia , the great - great - grandniece of President William Henry Harrison , and the great - great - granddaughter of Benjamin Harrison , a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence . Sally died during childbirth that November , at Fort Gates , Texas . Pickett next served in the Washington Territory . In 1856 he commanded the construction of Fort Bellingham on Bellingham Bay , in what is today the city of Bellingham , Washington . He also built a frame home that year which still stands ; Picket House is the oldest house in Bellingham and the oldest house on its original foundation in the Pacific Northwest . While posted to Fort Bellingham , Pickett married a Native American woman of the Haida tribe , Morning Mist , who gave birth to a son , James Tilton Pickett ( 1857 – 1889 ) ; Morning Mist died a few months later . " Jimmy " Pickett made a name for himself as a newspaper artist in his short life . He died of tuberculosis at the age of 32 near Portland , Oregon . Pig War . In 1859 Pickett was dispatched in command of Company D , 9th U . S . Infantry , to garrison San Juan Island in response to discord that had arisen there between American farmers and the Hudson ' s Bay Company . The confrontation was instigated when American farmer Lyman Cutler shot and killed a pig that had repeatedly broken into his garden . The pig belonged to the Hudson ' s Bay Company , and though Cutler was prepared to pay a fair price for the pig , the Company was not satisfied , insisting he be brought before the British magistrate , thus initiating the territorial dispute that came to be known as the Pig War . In response to the U . S . forces , the British sent a force of three warships and 1000 men . The British commander demanded that Pickett and his men leave . Pickett declined , and the British officer returned to his frigate , threatening to land his own men . Pickett with his 68 men appeared to be fully prepared to oppose a British landing , ordering them into a line of battle near the beach . " Don ' t be afraid of their big guns , " he told his men , " We ' ll make a Bunker Hill of it . " Pickett ' s presence and determination prevented the landing , the British being under orders to avoid armed conflict with United States forces , if possible . After initial tensions passed the crisis was averted , both sides being unwilling to go to war over a pig . President James Buchanan dispatched Lt . Gen . Winfield Scott to negotiate a settlement between the parties . Civil War . Early assignments . After the firing on Fort Sumter , Virginia seceded from the Union , and native son Pickett journeyed from Oregon to serve his state , despite his personal detestation of the institution of slavery . Arriving after the First Battle of Bull Run , he resigned his commission in the U . S . Army on June 25 , 1861 ; he had been holding a commission as a major in the Confederate States Army Artillery since March 16 . Within a month he was appointed colonel in command of the Rappahannock Line of the Department of Fredericksburg , under the command of Maj . Gen . Theophilus H . Holmes . Holmes ' s influence obtained a commission for Pickett as a brigadier general , dated January 14 , 1862 . Pickett made a colorful general . He rode a sleek black charger named " Old Black , " and wore a small blue kepi - style cap , with buffed gloves over the sleeves of an immaculately tailored uniform that had a double row of gold buttons on the coat , and shiny gold spurs on his highly polished boots . He held an elegant riding crop whether mounted or walking . His mustache drooped gracefully beyond the corners of his mouth and then turned upward at the ends . His hair was the talk of the Army : " long ringlets flowed loosely over his shoulders , trimmed and highly perfumed , his beard likewise was curling and giving up the scent of Araby . " Pickett ' s first combat command was during the Peninsula Campaign , leading a brigade that was nicknamed the Gamecocks ( the brigade would eventually be led by Richard B . Garnett in Pickett ' s Charge ) . Pickett led his brigade ably in the battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines , earning commendations from his superiors . At Gaines ' s Mill he was shot off his horse while leading his brigade in its first assault . Pickett continued to move forward with his men for a while , leading his horse on foot . A second assault by Pickett ' s brigade , led by Col . Eppa Hunton , along with the brigade led by Cadmus Wilcox , broke the Union line . Pickett feared he ' d taken a mortal blow to his shoulder , but the wound was initially assessed by others as minor . The shoulder wound turned out to be severe enough that Pickett was out of action for the next three months , and his arm would remain stiff for at least a year . When Pickett returned to the Army in September 1862 , he was given command of a two - brigade division in the corps commanded by his old colleague from Mexico , Maj . Gen . James Longstreet , and was promoted to major general on October 10 . His division would not see serious combat until the Gettysburg Campaign the following summer . It was lightly engaged at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December , suffering no fatalities . Longstreet ' s entire corps was absent from the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 , as it was detached on the Suffolk Campaign . Before the Gettysburg Campaign , Pickett fell in love with a Virginia teenager , LaSalle " Sallie " Corbell ( 1843 – 1931 ) , commuting back and forth from his duties in Suffolk to be with her . Although Sallie would later insist that she met him in 1852 ( at age 9 ) , she did not marry the 38 - year - old widower until November 13 , 1863 . Gettysburg and Pickett ' s Charge . Pickett ' s division arrived at the Battle of Gettysburg on the evening of the second day , July 2 , 1863 . It had been delayed by the assignment of guarding the Confederate lines of communication through Chambersburg , Pennsylvania . After two days of heavy fighting , Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia , which had initially driven the Union Army of the Potomac to the high ground south of Gettysburg , had been unable to dislodge the Union soldiers from their position . Lee ' s plan for July 3 called for a massive assault on the center of the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge , calculating that attacks on either flank the previous two days had drawn troops from the center . He directed General Longstreet to assemble a force of three divisions for the attack — two exhausted divisions from the corps of Lt . Gen . A . P . Hill ( under Brig . Gen . J . Johnston Pettigrew and Maj . Gen . Isaac R . Trimble ) , and Pickett ' s fresh division from Longstreet ' s own corps . Although Longstreet was actually in command , Lee referred to Pickett as leading the charge , which is one of the reasons that it is generally not known to popular history by the name " Pickett - Pettigrew - Trimble Assault . " In addition , much of the mythology of the Charge arose from newspaper reports . As Pickett was the only Virginia commander of his rank , the Virginia newspapers both played up their native son ' s role and made the assault a more " glamorous " event . Following a two - hour artillery barrage meant to soften up the Union defenses , the three divisions stepped off across open fields almost a mile from Cemetery Ridge . Pickett inspired his men by shouting , " Up , Men , and to your posts ! Don ' t forget today that you are from Old Virginia . " Pickett ' s division , with the brigades of Brig . Gens . Lewis A . Armistead , Richard B . Garnett , and James L . Kemper , was on the right flank of the assault . It received punishing artillery fire , and then volleys of massed musket fire as it approached its objective . Armistead ' s brigade made the farthest progress through the Union lines . Armistead was mortally wounded , falling near " The Angle " , at what is now termed the " High Water Mark of the Confederacy " . Neither of the other two divisions made comparable progress across the fields ; Armistead ' s success was not reinforced , and his men were quickly killed or captured . Pickett ' s Charge was a bloodbath . While the Union lost about 1 , 500 killed and wounded , the Confederate casualties were several times that . Over 50 % of the men sent across the fields were killed or wounded . Pickett ' s three brigade commanders and all thirteen of his regimental commanders were casualties . Kemper was wounded , and Garnett and Armistead did not survive . Trimble and Pettigrew were the most senior casualties , the former losing a leg and the latter wounded in the hand and later mortally wounded during the retreat to Virginia . Pickett himself has received some historical criticism for surviving the battle personally unscathed , establishing his final position well to the rear of his troops , most likely at the Codori farm on the Emmitsburg Road . Thomas R . Friend , who served Pickett as a courier , wrote that he " went as far as any Major General , Commanding a division , ought to have gone , and farther . " As soldiers straggled back to the Confederate lines along Seminary Ridge , Lee feared a Union counteroffensive and tried to rally his center , telling returning soldiers that the failure was " all my fault . " Pickett was inconsolable . When Lee told Pickett to rally his division for the defense , Pickett allegedly replied , " General Lee , I have no division . " Pickett ' s official report for the battle has never been found . It is rumored that Gen . Lee rejected it for its bitter negativity and demanded that it be rewritten , and an updated version was never filed . Five Forks . After Gettysburg Pickett commanded the Department of Southern Virginia and North Carolina over the winter , and then served as a division commander in the Defenses of Richmond . After P . G . T . Beauregard bottled up Benjamin Butler in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign , Pickett ' s division was detached in support of Robert E . Lee ' s operation in the Overland Campaign , just before the Battle of Cold Harbor , in which Pickett ' s division occupied the center of the defensive line , a place in which the main Union attack did not occur . His division returned to take part in the Siege of Petersburg . On April 1 , 1865 , Pickett ' s defeat at the Battle of Five Forks was a pivotal moment that unraveled the tenuous Confederate line and caused Lee to order the evacuation of Richmond , Virginia , and retreat toward Appomattox Court House . It was a final humiliation for Pickett , because he was two miles away from his troops at the time of the attack , enjoying a shad bake with generals Fitzhugh Lee and Thomas L . Rosser . By the time he returned to the battlefield , it was too late . Relief controversy . There has been a historical controversy about whether , after the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek on April 6 , 1865 , Pickett was relieved of command . Lt . Col . Walter H . Taylor , Lee ' s chief of staff , wrote after the war that he had issued orders for Lee relieving Pickett of duty , along with Maj . Gens . Richard H . Anderson and Bushrod R . Johnson . No copies of these orders exist . Lee ' s biographer , Douglas Southall Freeman , wrote : In his 1870 book " Pickett ' s Men " , Walter Harrison reprinted an order from Lt . Col . Taylor to Pickett dated April 10 , 1865 , in which he addresses Pickett as " Maj Gen G E Picket , General Commanding . " The order was a request for an account of the movements and actions of Pickett ' s Division from the time of the Battle of Five Forks to Appomattox . Pickett ' s official report to Taylor later that same day was signed " G . E . Pickett , Major - Gen . , Commd ' g . " In his response Pickett said " The second day after the battle referred to ( Five Forks ) not being able to find General Anderson ’ s headquarters , I reported to Lieut . Gen . Longstreet , and continued to receive orders from him until the army was paroled and disbursed . " Thus in Pickett ' s official report to Taylor he speaks of commanding his men in a normal fashion , and interacting with his superior officer in a normal fashion . Taylor later reportedly explained this incongruence to Fitzhugh Lee , stating it was addressed in this way because Pickett was relieved of his division command , but not dismissed from the Army , and the report covered a time in which Pickett was in command . However , this would not explain Pickett ' s report , Longstreet ' s interactions with Pickett , or Taylor ' s lack of comment after receiveing Pickett ' s report . Furthermore , there is no record of Taylor referring to any other officers dismissed from the service in this manner . The medical officer of Pickett ' s division , Dr . M . G . Elzey , was with Pickett at the time of these events , and when Col . Mosby in his later years brought this issue up , lzey wrote a letter to the Richmond Times - Dispatch in answer : Pickett continued to command the remaining men of his division ( by now reduced in strength to below that of a brigade ) , reporting to Longstreet . In Longstreet ' s final report , he makes no mention of any other officer being in charge of the unit , nor does his report make any mention of the men of Pickett ' s division who surrendered with Pickett at Appomattox . Appomattox . On April 9 Pickett commanded his remaining troops in the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse , forming up in the final battle line of the Army of Northern Virginia . He surrendered with Lee ' s army and was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 9 , 1865 . A legend told by Pickett ' s widow stated that when the Union Army marched into Richmond , she received a surprise visitor . He acted graciously and inquired whether he had found the Pickett house . Abraham Lincoln himself had come to determine the fate of an old acquaintance before the wars , and Sallie , astonished , admitted she was his wife and held out her infant for the president to cradle . Lincoln historian Gerald J . Prokopowicz has called this story a " fantasy " . Postbellum life . Despite his parole , Pickett fled to Canada . He returned to Norfolk , Virginia , in 1866 to work as an insurance agent . Pickett had difficulty seeking amnesty after the Civil War . This was a problem shared by many other former Confederate officers who had been West Point graduates and had resigned their commissions at the start of the war . Former Union officers , including Ulysses S . Grant , supported pardoning Pickett . House Resolution 3086 , which would " act to remove the political disabilities of George E . Pickett of Virginia " , was passed by the U . S . Congress on June 23 , 1874 , granting him a full pardon about a year before his death . To his dying day , Pickett lamented the great losses his men suffered at Gettysburg . Late in his life , Colonel John Mosby who served under J . E . B . Stuart but had no direct interaction with Lee to draw from , claimed an interaction he observed between Lee and Pickett was cold and reserved . Others present who knew General Lee well refuted this , stating Lee acted in his usual reserved , gentlemanly fashion . Mosby claimed after their meeting Pickett said bitterly " That man destroyed my division . " Most historians find the encounter as Mosby interpreted it unlikely , especially as when asked why Pickett ' s Charge failed , Pickett was on record elsewhere as having said " I ' ve always thought the Yankees had something to do with it . " Pickett died in Norfolk on July 30 , 1875 , of scarlet fever and is buried in Richmond ' s Hollywood Cemetery . Legacy . Decades after Pickett ' s death , his widow Sallie became a well - known writer and speaker on " her Soldier , " eventually leading to the creation of an idealized Pickett who was the perfect Southern gentleman and soldier . A considerable amount of controversy attends Sallie Pickett ' s lionizing of her husband . Two books published posthumously in her husband ' s name , " The Heart of a Soldier , As Revealed in the Intimate Letters of Gen ' l George E . Pickett " ( published in 1913 ) and " Soldier of the South : General Pickett ' s War Letters to His Wife " ( 1928 ) , have been described as " unreliable works that were fictionalized by Pickett ' s wife . " ( Sallie was also the author , under her own name , of " Pickett and His Men " , published in 1913 . ) As a result , General Pickett has become a figure partially obscured by " Lost Cause " mythology . Pickett today is widely perceived as being a tragic hero of sorts — a flamboyant officer who wanted to lead his troops into a glorious battle , but always missed the opportunity — until the disastrous charge at Gettysburg . Douglas Southall Freeman ' s works ( especially " Lee ' s Lieutenants " ) , as well as Michael Shaara ' s novel " The Killer Angels " ( 1975 ) and " Gettysburg " ( 1993 ) , the film adaptation in which he is portrayed by Stephen Lang ) have greatly enhanced this reputation in popular culture . Historian John C . Waugh wrote of Pickett , " An excellent brigade commander , he never proved he could handle a division . " He quotes George B . McClellan , the Union general , as saying : " Perhaps there is no doubt that he was the best infantry soldier developed on either side during the Civil War . " Pickett ' s grave is marked by an elaborate memorial in Hollywood Cemetery . Commissioned in 1875 by the Pickett Division Association , a group of veterans from his division , it was originally intended to be placed at Gettysburg National Military Park at the " High Water Mark " of Pickett ' s Charge , but was built in Richmond when the U . S . War Department refused permission for the battlefield placement . A monument to Pickett also stands in the American Camp on San Juan Island , Washington , erected by the Washington University Historical Society , October 21 , 1904 . Fort Pickett in Blackstone , Virginia , is named in his honor . Originally a site for the Civilian Conservation Corps , it was an active U . S . Army training facility in World War II and is currently occupied by the Virginia National Guard . In popular media . Actor Stephen Lang portrayed George Pickett in the 1993 film " Gettysburg " . In the 2003 prequel " Gods and Generals " , Billy Campbell portrayed Pickett . George Pickett appeared in two episodes of the 1985 mini - series " North and South " , depicting his cadet years at West Point where he was a friend of George Hazard and Orry Main .