Customer Reviews

Pickett Leader of the Charge: A Biography of General George E. Pickett, C.S.A

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This is a good work. Other than the Gettysburg charge, before reading this book I did not know George Picket very well. I only got glimpses of him from various readings: Chapultepec, the Penninsula Campaign, Bermuda Hundred, Five Forks, etc. And in those various readings never once did anyone take him to task, making him account for himself like Longacre does.

What we have here is a complex aristocrat, a fighter, whose personal attributes estranged the majority of his superiors (Lee and Jefferson Davis to name a few) but one whose loyalty and devotion to Confederate Independence made him indispensable to their efforts .

He is difficult to like. He deserts a son, is a heavy drinker, is a panderer and is a political maneuverer in the worst sense of the concept. But we also have a person who personifies loyalty, who serves to the very end, under privation, while absorbing every imaginable insult from his superiors along the way. He may have made some serious errors but he always obeyed orders, remained steadfast, even when he must have known he had been identified as expendable. Above all else he served, served, served.

Longacre does a remarkably good job of brining Picket to life. Even more important than Picket is the wonderful glimpse we get into the workings of the Confederate High Command. A very valuable additional plus is the myriad of interesting historical antidotes that will make the most serious student of the Civil War stop and say, "I didn't know that."

No Lost Cause apologia, here you get all the warts. This one is definitely worth the time.

I enjoyed Longacre's book on George Pickett. I often read "on the go" and liked the way he broke down each chapter in brief segments which I could read and stop conveniently. The author does a good job of portraying Pickett evenly and sifting thru the legends and myths. I appreciated Longacre's discussion on Gettysberg as that is one thing I have always wondered about. Was it wrong for Pickett not to accompany his men on this heroic and futile assault ? Pickett himself proved to be a complex man and all too human. After reading this book I felt that Pickett's military career was a quest for respect and secondly for glory and not the other way around.

Growing up in the south I always held the same general opinion of Pickett that most southerners and indeed most Americans hold. The playboy image seen in the movie "Gettysburg" has always been what came to mind at the mention of General Pickett. Thanks to this book I see that the well known image is false.

Pickett does indeed seem to have been a glory hound and playboy but he was also a brave soilder who exposed himself to deadly fire in the Mexican War and was wounded early in the Civil War. Longacre handles the fact that Pickett didn't actually lead his men to the angle at Gettysburg in just the way he should have handled it.

I found most interesting Pickett's work at Petersburg to hold that city until Beauregard and then Lee could arrive on the scene. Pickett is not in general given his due for Petersburg probably because after the war the "cult of the lost cause" was so protective of General Lee that they kept to a minimum Pickett's role. In fact, Lee made a mistake and Pickett and then Beauregard saved the day. Without Pickett's contribution at Petersburg the war might have ended several months sooner. Richmond simply could not have been held without Petersburg.

A great book that puts a new and interesting face on George Pickett. It belongs in any Civil War library.

Traces George Pickett's life from military school to Military Academy and on to his career in first the Union Army and then Confederate. As did many of Lee's Generals, Pickett saw service in Mexico with Scott and also tours in the Far West. Pickett's first assignment in the Confederate Army was to the Northern Neck of Virginia where his forces were mostly militia. He repeatedly complained that these forces and portion of Virginia failed to rally to the high standards of support for the Confederacy that he expected. When a more senior officer arrived in the area Pickett responsibilities were relegated to an even lesser position. Clearly this man was not a rising star but more of a place holder. In fact throughout his career he was constantly trying to position himself for higher visibility.

The author makes a careful analysis of Pickett's actions at Gettysburg and concludes that while they were nether heroic nor cowardly they were in keeping with the actions expected of someone in his position.

After the war Pickett had a difficult time "fitting in" and after several pursuits became a life insurance salesman in Richmond. Perhaps a testimonial to what he is best known for...leading (as directed) thousands of men to their slaughter.

I found this book to be well written and documented but a little disjointed at times.

I considered Edward Longacre's biography on George Pickett to be a pretty good one. The author goes into considerable length to show the reader what kind of man Pickett was behind his "Gettysburg persona" that most Americans know him from. The picture we get is one of strange contradictions of a man who can do a dishonorable thing like abandoning his own son to a brave and couragous soldier.

The author proves to be very sympathic toward his subject. However, not even Longacre can excuse Pickett for his foolishness at Five Forks. It was interesting that the author did not investigate the effects of post traumatic stress disorder which must have affected Pickett after Gettysburg. That may have answered many of unusual downgrading of Pickett's abilities as commander. (Another famous combat leader, Marshal Michel Ney of Napoleon's army also suffered from it after Russian Campaign of 1812 and his performance suffered thereafter.)

However, the book come highly recommended and it proves to be well written, nicely researched and very informative.

I found this to be an interesting and informative biography of a great person. We discover George Pickett as more than just the legendary "leader of the charge"; he was a devoted family man who suffered many tragedies yet always remained positive. He was proud and devoted completely to The Cause. Finally, after the end of hostilities he did his best to help less-fortunate when possible. I highly recommend this book.

"Pickett Leader Of The Charge" by Edward Longacre is a good read for anyone wanting to know more about the man who led the infamous charge at Gettysburg.

Among the topics covered include:

1. Early life and life at West Point - rebelled against what he saw as unfair and arbitrary discipline at the academy.
2. Tragic family life - lost two wives prematurely before meeting his third wife.
3. Service in the Mexican War.
4. Relationships with various officers (Lee, Longstreet, Grant, etc.).
5. Post Civil War years - struggled to make a living for him and his family.

The narrative flows freely and may be read in 2-3 sittings. I learned quite a few things about Pickett that I did not know before.

I knew the author back in the early 1990s when he and I were members of the Williamsburg VA Civil War Round Table. A nice and approachable person who seemed to be devoid of the ego you may find in other authors.

Read and enjoy. Recommended.

My notion for reading this book is probably a bit unusual. I happen to own a little piece of land on Mount Pickett and was curious to learn something about the man it was named after.

I found it quite engaging. I was naturally most interested in the period he spent in military service in the Pacific Northwest, but the rest of his life was intriguing as well and as a non history buff I got a chance through the back door of learning a bit about the Civil War.

As I would hope would be the case for a biography, the author appeared to have no preordained views about Pickett, but simply sought to research the man's life and document what he found.

Book looks like it probably has good info in it, but upon receiving it the book pages immediately started falling out, page after page. As the middle of the book was split and the pages would not stay in. So I ended up taping a bunch of the pages together in order to keep the book somewhat intact. It looks pretty weird now and is a bit hard to use as a result. Therefore I feel the book should have been listed as being in worse shape then it was presented on Amazon.