Pickett's charge a dead run.

NapoleonXIV

Banned
Some hours before Pickett's Charge Lee tells Pickett to run his men at the highest speed possible across the field to the stone wall. He says he is expecting high casualties but the development of the battle has left him no choice. 'Speed, and only speed, may be your salvation. We will also launch a final artillery barrage as your charge begins and I am asking your men to run right into their own fire, but the effect, of devils swirling up out of the smoke of this mighty bombardment, may just do the trick and break the line. Godspeed."

Would this work, or make things worse?
 
I really think everything is sure to go to hell if this happens. Not only are his troops sprinting towards fortified enemy posistions as they did in real life but running through their own fire! The smokeshield may work, but on the other hand lots o' dudes are gonna get trampled and shredded. Also, if there is any competant leader on the other side, he will say "Holy Crap!!! Shoot into the smoke!!!".
 
I don't think it would work. The only way this infantry assault ever works is to deliver A LOT (IMO, more than they had available!) of soldiers to the Union lines at the same moment. Having them run the distance will spread them out from here to breakfast.

Besides the disadvantage of having the troops run through their own covering cannonade, they also will be exhausted when they reach the Union lines. Worn-out soldiers engaging fresh troops in hand-to-hand combat don't last very long.

It is true that the devestating effect of Union cannon fire against the Confederate infantry would be reduced - there would be fewer juicy targets to hit. But, the last few hundred yards are going to be just as bad for the assault troops. Whoever survives the close-in defensive fire is going to hit the Union lines piecemeal and exhausted - and is going to fail. The image of CSA General Armistead breaching the lines with a handful of men would be no less gallant but even more hopeless.
 
A full sprint of roughly 3/4 of a mile by 15,000 men and then have to take time to load and fire your musket while entrenched enemy troops and artillery are firing at you? It would be a disaster of epic proportions.

Remember that the Confederate artillery was not coordinated with only Longstreet's corps artillery firing while the artillery placement for the other two corps had been obstructed by Maj. General Pendleton (Lee's artillery chief), and the artillery barrage itself largely overshot the Union lines. While the union artillery was limited in its placement, they were saving ammunition for the coming assault.

Pickett's Charge in OTL suffered roughly 60% casaulties. With this, I'd expect it to be even higher if not total.
 
Massacre - just quicker this time.

:eek:As Longstreet warned, there was no 15,000 men that could have breached the Union line. Running or walking, the outcome would have been the same. The only possible difference might have been that Pickett's Virginians survive some of the long range artillery fire, only to be cut down en masse as they arrive within musket and cannister range.

Lee had one (very slim) chance to win at Gettysburg - take the heights beyond the town on the evening of 1 July and hold them before the arrival of the Union XII and II Corps. Sadly for the Confederacy that required a corps commander with more imagination and less caution than Dick Ewell.
 
Some hours before Pickett's Charge Lee tells Pickett to run his men at the highest speed possible across the field to the stone wall. He says he is expecting high casualties but the development of the battle has left him no choice. 'Speed, and only speed, may be your salvation. We will also launch a final artillery barrage as your charge begins and I am asking your men to run right into their own fire, but the effect, of devils swirling up out of the smoke of this mighty bombardment, may just do the trick and break the line. Godspeed."

Would this work, or make things worse?

It's impossible. We are talking about a distance of nearly a mile, mostly uphill, on one of the hottest days of the year. What you have is 10,000 to 12,000 of them down with heat stroke before they get 1/2 way there.

Second, and even more importantly, the scenario ignores the terrain between the Confederate lines and the Union position on Cemetery Ridge...particularly the Emmitsburg Road, which crossed the field at near right angles to the Confederate advance and had a 5 foot high rail fence which ran alongside it. The entire Confederate advance was halted, in OTL, by this fence, which the men had to literally either dismantle or climb over in order to proceed further (a lot of the Confederate casualties occurred while the men were bunched up behind this fence, trying to get past it to continue the advance). If the men get there already exhausted because they have run all the way there in the scorching July heat, mustering the energy to climb over the fence and go on will be well-nigh impossible. In OTL, many of the men did not go beyond that point, but lay down in the field instead of trying to negotiate the obstacle and refused to advance further. Many, many more men will do that in this scenario, and the attack will collapse at this point.

Short version...the Confederate advance never reaches the stone wall at all, but breaks down and is turned back at the Emmitsburg Road. Ironically, probably a lot more of the men survive the attack, because the horrendous casualties suffered as the men charged into blasts of close-range cannister and musket fire as they approached the stone wall don't occur.
 
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