George Edward Pickett (January 16,Military records cited by Eicher, p. 428, and Warner, p. 239, list January 28. The memorial that marks his gravesite in Hollywood Cemetery lists his birthday as January 25. The Pickett Society claims to have accessed the baptismal record from St. John's Church in Richmond; at the time of young Pickett's christening on March 10, 1826, his parents gave their son's date of birth as January 16. 1825 – July 30, 1875) was an American military officer who became a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for being one of the commanders at Pickett's Charge, the futile and bloody Confederate offensive on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name.
Pickett graduated last out of 59 cadets in the United States Military Academy class of 1846. He served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and is noted for his service in the Battle of Chapultepec in September 1847. After this, he served in the Washington Territory and eventually reached the rank of captain. Pickett participated in the Pig War of 1859. Near the beginning of the American Civil War, he was commissioned in the Confederate States Army, and attained the rank of brigadier general in January 1862. He commanded a brigade that saw heavy action during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. Pickett was wounded at the Battle of Gaines's Mill on June 27.
He returned to command in September, following the Battle of Antietam, when he was given command of a division in the Right Wing of the Army of Northern Virginia, in the command of Major General James Longstreet, which became the I Corps that December. His division was lightly engaged at the Battle of Fredericksburg and, along with most of Longstreet's Corps, missed the Battle of Chancellorsville while participating in the Suffolk Campaign in 1863. During the Gettysburg campaign, his division was, much to Pickett's frustration, the last to arrive on the field. However, it was one of three divisions under the command of General Longstreet to participate in a disastrous assault on Union positions on July 3, the final day of the battle. The attack has been given the name "Pickett's Charge". In February 1864, Pickett ordered 22 North Carolinians in Union uniform hanged as deserters after a failed assault on New Bern. His military career came to an inglorious end when his division was overwhelmed and defeated at the Battle of Five Forks.
Following the war, Pickett feared prosecution for his execution of deserters and temporarily fled to Canada. An old Army friend, Ulysses S. Grant, interceded on his behalf, and he returned to Virginia in 1866. He could not rejoin the Army, so he tried his hand at farming, then selling insurance. He died at age 50 in July 1875 from an "abscess of the liver".
Early life and education George Edward Pickett was born in his grandfather's shop in Richmond, Virginia, on January 16, 1825, and raised on his family's plantation at Turkey Island, where dozens of people enslaved by the Pickett family worked. He was the first of the eight children of Robert and Mary Pickett,Pickett Society a prominent old Virginia family of English and French Huguenot origins. He was a cousin of future Confederate general Henry Heth.Eicher, p. 428.
For a time in the 1840s, Pickett lived and served as a law clerk for his uncle Andrew Johnston in Quincy, Illinois.Prokopowicz, G.J. (2009) Did Lincoln Own Slaves? : And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln. New York: Knopf Doubleday, p. 132 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 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 at the time, could not nominate candidates, although he did give the young man advice after he was accepted.Tagg, p. 237. In fact, Pickett was appointed by Illinois Congressman John T. Stuart, a friend of Pickett's uncle and a law partner of Lincoln.Hess, p. 37.
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 left before graduation, Pickett persisted, working off his demerits and doing enough in his studies to graduate, ranking last of the 59 surviving students in the Class of 1846.Robbins p. 96 It is a position held with some backhanded distinction, referred to today as the "goat", for both its stubbornness and tenacity.Robbins p. xi Quote: The term goat connotes many things – stubbornness, persistence, but also mischievousness and playfulness. The goats were by and large charismatic, adventuresome, with a youthful bonhomie that generally made them very popular with their classmates. Ordinarily, such a showing would be a ticket to an obscure posting and a dead-end career, but Pickett, like George Armstrong Custer a generation later, had the fortune to graduate just as a war broke out, resulting in a sudden need for many junior army officers. Pickett's cousin Henry Heth graduated last in the Class of 1847.
Early career July 1, 1846,LaSalle Corbell Pickett (Mrs. Gen. George E. Pickett), "Pickett and his men", The Foote and Davies Company, Atlanta, Ga., Second Edition, 1900, p. 129. Pickett was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 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 in September 1847. Wounded at the base of the wall, Pickett's friend and colleague Lieutenant 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 second brevet promotion, to captain, following this action. His record of service, compiled by the Adjutant-General's Office in March 1887 at the request of his widow, states: Brevetted first lieutenant August 20, 1847, "for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras, and Churubusco, Mexico"; and captain September 13, 1847, "for gallant and meritorious conduct at Chapultepec, Mexico."LaSalle Corbell Pickett (Mrs. Gen. George E. Pickett), "Pickett and his men", The Foote and Davies Company, Atlanta, Ga., Second Edition, 1900, p. 129.
June 28, 1849,LaSalle Corbell Pickett (Mrs. Gen. George E. Pickett), "Pickett and his men", The Foote and Davies Company, Atlanta, Ga., Second Edition, 1900, p. 129. while serving on the Texas frontier after the war, he was promoted to first lieutenant and then to captain in the 9th Infantry Regiment March 3, 1855.LaSalle Corbell Pickett (Mrs. Gen. George E. Pickett), "Pickett and his men", The Foote and Davies Company, Atlanta, Ga., Second Edition, 1900, p. 129. In 1853, Pickett challenged a fellow junior officer, future Union general 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.Tagg, p. 112.
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 V, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Sally died during childbirth that November, at Fort Gates, Texas.Gordon, Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1518–19.
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; Pickett 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, before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 32 near Portland, Oregon.Gordon, General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend, pp. 169–70; Boltz, np.
In 1859 Pickett was dispatched in command of Company D, 9th US 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, known as the Pig War, 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 marking an escalation of the territorial dispute. In response to the U.S. forces, the British sent a force of three warships and 1000 men. The British commander, Captain Geoffrey Phipps Hornby (H.M.S. 'Tribune', 30 guns),LaSalle Corbell Pickett (Mrs. Gen. George E. Pickett), "Pickett and his men", The Foote and Davies Company, Atlanta, Ga., Second Edition, 1900, p. 117. 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."Robbins, p. 177; Tagg, p. 237. Pickett's presence and determination prevented the landing, the British being under orders to avoid armed conflict with United States forces, if possible. Pickett had set up camp and his battery of cannon near the Hudson's Bay Company's Belle Vue Sheep Farm, and directly under the cannons of the British warship. Having this error pointed out to him, he moved the camp and battery a few miles north to high ground, to a spot overlooking Griffin Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. After initial tensions passed the crisis was averted, both sides being unwilling to go to war over a pig. President James Buchanan dispatched Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott to negotiate a settlement between the parties.Gordon, General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend, p. 60.
There is also some controversy that Pickett and General William S. Harney, per General Granville O. Haller, maneuvered behind the scenes to provoke a war between the United States and Britain, to distract the North, allowing the South to seek independence or, as General George B. McClellan said, to unite the North and South.
American Civil War Early assignments