Pickett's Charge in History and Memory

If, as many have argued, the Civil War is the most crucial moment in our national life and Gettysburg its turning point, then the climax of the climax, the central moment of our history, must be Pickett’s Charge. But as Carol Reardon notes, the Civil War saw many other daring assaults and stout defenses. Why, then, is it Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg — and not, for example, Richardson’s Charge at Antietam or Humphreys’s Assault at Fredericksburg — that looms so large in the popular imagina...