Same Day, Different Century

The High-Water Mark

Zach Ipsen

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0:00 | 12:11

On July 3, 1863, Robert E. Lee ordered roughly thirteen thousand Confederate soldiers across open farmland toward the Union center at Gettysburg, a desperate gamble his own corps commander warned would fail. What followed, later known as Pickett's Charge, became one of the most studied hours in American military history. We trace the deception that fooled Confederate gunners, the brigade that briefly broke through at a stone wall, and the moment Lee rode out to meet his shattered army and accept the blame himself.