George Pickett

George Pickett, born on January sixteenth, eighteen twenty-five, was a prominent American military officer who rose to the rank of major general in the Confederate States Army during the tumultuous years of the American Civil War. He is most famously associated with Pickett's Charge, a notorious and ill-fated assault on Union positions during the Battle of Gettysburg, which occurred on the third day of the conflict.

Pickett's military career began at the United States Military Academy, where he graduated last out of fifty-nine cadets in the class of eighteen forty-six. He initially served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War, earning recognition for his bravery at the Battle of Chapultepec in September eighteen forty-seven. Following this, he served in the Washington Territory and achieved the rank of captain, also participating in the Pig War of eighteen fifty-nine.

As the Civil War commenced, Pickett was commissioned into the Confederate Army, quickly attaining the rank of brigadier general in January eighteen sixty-two. He commanded a brigade that engaged in significant battles during the Peninsula Campaign of eighteen sixty-two, but was wounded at the Battle of Gaines's Mill. After recovering, he took command of a division in the Right Wing of the Army of Northern Virginia under Major General James Longstreet, participating in various campaigns, including the Battle of Fredericksburg.

During the Gettysburg campaign, Pickett's division was delayed in arriving at the battlefield, ultimately leading to the infamous charge that bears his name. Following the war, he faced potential prosecution for his actions regarding deserters and briefly fled to Canada. With the help of his old friend Ulysses S. Grant, he returned to Virginia in eighteen sixty-six, where he attempted farming and selling insurance. Unfortunately, his life was cut short when he died at the age of fifty in July eighteen seventy-five from an abscess of the liver.