High Watermark Oak Battlefield Tree Coasters

The High Water Mark of the Confederacy, also known as the High Tide of the Confederacy, refers to an area on Cemetery Ridge that marks the farthest point reached by Confederate infantry during what became known as Pickett’s Charge late in the afternoon of July 3, 1863. 
On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, ordered an attack on the center of the Union Army’s positions on Cemetery Ridge, commanded by newly promoted Gen. George Meade.  The offensive maneuver called for roughly 12,500 men to march over nearly a mile of dangerously open terrain.  The attack was preceded by a massive, but mostly ineffective, artillery barrage by the Confederates. Gen. George Pickett was one of three division commanders under the command of Gen. James Longstreet, who opposed the attack against such a superior defensive position. 
As the Confederates advanced, Union artillery and rifle fire inflicted casualties of more than 50 percent.  One of Pickett’s brigade commanders was Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead.  His men were able to breach the Union lines in just one place, a bend in a stone wall that later became known as ‘The Angle.’  The gap was hastily closed by Union troops, and any Confederate who had breached it was quickly captured or killed, including Armistead.
While the Civil War would last for two more years, this crucial Union victory in early July 1863 has become known as the turning point in the war and ultimate victory for the Union.