July 3 - Gettysburg. 144 years ago today.

In charge of the Confederate artillery barrage preceding Pickett's charge that day was a 25-year-old West Point graduate, Colonel Edward Porter Alexander.

In Gettysburg, on July 3rd, 1863, E.P. Alexander commanded the cannon bombardment that preceded the infamous Pickett's Charge, as Longstreet's chief of Artillery. 75 guns were placed along a front extending 1,300 yards northward from the peach orchard; eight others locaated south to cover the flank of the attacking infantry. Several hundred yards to the left and to the reat of Alexander's main line were another 60, and beyond them another 24. All told, the Confederate deployment was approx. 170 guns, each with 130 to 150 rounds of ammunition available; everything was ready for the most colossal cannonade in the nation's history. As everything was in place, Alexander recieved a note from Longstreet, placing the burden of assessing the results of the bombardment and deciding whether the infantry charge should be made. Applalled by his dilemma, to cancel Lee's assault was unthinkable, yet so was defiance of Longstreet. It was a determination that Alexander felt he could not make: he could only follow the battle plan. "When our fire is at its best", he wrote Longstreet, "I will advise General Pickett to advance." Reluctantly, Longstreet sent the order to begin the bombardment. At 1 P.M., Alexander remembered, the roar of artillery "burst in on silence, almost as suddenly as the full notes of an organ would fill a church".

http://scard.buffnet.net/1st/epalexander/epalexander.html

The barrage proved to be aimed too high, with the rounds passing over the Union line and falling ineffectually behind them.

Military historians speculate that the young Col. Alexander failed to compensate properly for the opressive July heat when calculating the aim of his batteries.