Buy new:
-23% $21.64$21.64
Delivery Tuesday, September 2
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Save with Used - Good
$14.56$14.56
Delivery Tuesday, September 9
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Shakespeare Book House
Return this item for free
Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no return shipping charges.
Learn more about free returns.- Go to your orders and start the return
- Select your preferred free shipping option
- Drop off and leave!
Sorry, there was a problem.
There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.Sorry, there was a problem.
List unavailable.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
OK
Pickett's Charge: A New Look at Gettysburg's Final Attack Hardcover – August 16, 2016
Purchase options and add-ons
The Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War’s turning point, produced over 57,000 casualties, the largest number from the entire war that was itself America’s bloodiest conflict. On the third day of fierce fighting, Robert E. Lee’s attempt to invade the North came to a head in Pickett’s Charge. The infantry assault, consisting of nine brigades of soldiers in a line that stretched for over a mile, resulted in casualties of over 50 percent for the Confederates and a huge psychological blow to Southern morale.
Pickett’s Charge is a detailed analysis of one of the most iconic and defining events in American history. This book presents a much-needed fresh look, including the unvarnished truths and ugly realities, about the unforgettable story. With the luxury of hindsight, historians have long denounced the folly of Lee’s attack, but this work reveals the tactical brilliance of a master plan that went awry. Special emphasis is placed on the common soldiers on both sides, especially the non-Virginia attackers outside of Pickett’s Virginia Division. These fighters’ moments of cowardice, failure, and triumph are explored using their own words from primary and unpublished sources. Without romance and glorification, the complexities and contradictions of the dramatic story of Pickett's Charge have been revealed in full to reveal this most pivotal moment in the nation’s life.
Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
- Print length520 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSkyhorse
- Publication dateAugust 16, 2016
- Dimensions6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101634507967
- ISBN-13978-1634507967
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Frequently bought together

Popular titles by this author
Kings Mountain: America's Most Forgotten Battle That Changed the Course of the American RevolutionHardcover$7.35 shippingThis title will be released on November 18, 2025.
Pickett's Charge: Revised and Updated: A New Look at Gettysburg's Final AttackPaperback$7.36 shippingOnly 12 left in stock (more on the way).
How the Irish Won the American Revolution: The Forgotten Heroes of America's War of IndependencePaperback$7.26 shippingOnly 18 left in stock (more on the way).
Editorial Reviews
Review
"In his almost minute-by-minute account of the most famous infantry charge in history, Phillip Thomas Tucker provides a thoughtful and challenging new look at the great assault at Gettysburg, from planning to aftermath. Not afraid to lay blame where he thinks it belongs, Tucker is fresh and bold in his analysis and use of sources. Even though any reader knows in advance the outcome, still Pickett's Charge maintains suspense to the sound of the last gun." -William C. Davis, author of Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee--The War they Fought, the Peace they Forged
"No action in the Civil War is more iconic than the misnamed 'Pickett’s Charge,' and yet few episodes of this most-studied of wars is in need of more enlightened and enlightening reexamination. Phillip Thomas Tucker’s magisterial Pickett’s Charge: A New Look at Gettysburg’s Final Attack replaces 150-plus years of uninterrogated mythology with meticulously researched history to give us a new and long-overdue understanding of what tradition dismisses as Robert E. Lee’s most tragic error in pursuit of a 'Lost Cause.' Tucker persuasively argues that Pickett’s Charge, though failed in its execution, actually reveals Lee at his most masterful. This book is one of a handful essential to gaining a full strategic and tactical appreciation of both Gettysburg and the war in which it was the turning point." —Alan Axelrod, author of The Horrid Pit: The Battle of the Crater, the Civil War’s Cruelest Mission and The 20 Most Significant Events of the Civil War
"Phillip Thomas Tucker cuts through the myths and misconceptions that surround Pickett's charge to offer a fresh defense of Robert E. Lee and a probing examination of what happened that fateful afternoon. The result is a thought-provoking and eye-opening study of this pivotal moment in American history." —Louis P. Masur, PhD. Distinguished Professor of American studies and History, Rutgers University, and author of The Civil War: A Concise History
"In nearly all recent surveys, Americans list the Battle of Gettysburg as the most recognizable and most important of all battles in our history. And, when asked what they know about Gettysburg, to top of that list is Pickett’s Charge. When pressed a little harder, if they know anything about the charge, most will say it was a disaster, that General Lee didn’t know what he was doing, that there was no way it could have succeeded, and so forth. Relying heavily on the combatants’s first-hand accounts, Phillip Thomas Tucker cuts away the myths and offers a fresh new interpretation that challenges long held views of the story. Rather than seeing Pickett’s Charge as foolhardy, Tucker considers Lee’s plan as a stroke of genius, and that, had a few things gone differently, could well have ended the war in favor of the Confederacy." —Robert K. Sutton, former Chief Historian, National Park Service
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Skyhorse
- Publication date : August 16, 2016
- Edition : First Edition
- Language : English
- Print length : 520 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1634507967
- ISBN-13 : 978-1634507967
- Item Weight : 1.76 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #973,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #117 in Civil War Gettysburg History
- #171 in U.S. Civil War Confederacy History
- #3,408 in U.S. State & Local History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

The award-winning author of nearly 175 books of history, Phillip Thomas Tucker, Ph.D., has become the most prolific author of groundbreaking and important history books not only in the United States but also in the world. In a remarkable achievement, no American historian has written more history books than Tucker. Dr. Tucker has earned widespread renown as "the Stephen King of History" for having authored more than 170 groundbreaking books of history and more than 225 historical works, both books and scholarly articles. These groundbreaking books have included national and state award-winners and three other books--Anne Bonny, Mia Leimberg, and Cathy Williams--that have been optioned for Hollywood films. In addition, other books are also being considered as possible future films at this time. No historian in America has been more eclectic in writing about so many diverse historical subjects and different time periods throughout the past than Tucker. And no author in America has written more groundbreaking books in multiple fields of history than Dr. Tucker, who has become a leading expert in many different fields of history. Even more, very few, if any, historians have displayed a mastery of so many different historical subjects.
Even more, he was won acclaim as "America's most groundbreaking American Revolutionary War historian." Dr. Tucker has become the most prolific and groundbreaking historian in America in the twenty-first century, while gaining an international reputation and audience as a mythbuster by writing cutting edge, insightful, and well-researched history for the twenty-first century. In his many books, he is also known for making history come alive like few other authors today with his well-written and deeply researched books of distinction. Decade after decade and like no other author in America today, Tucker has presented some of the most important and compelling stories in the annals of American history. He has consistently written about some of the best and most fascinating chapters of not only American history but also world history.
A summa cum laude graduate from St. Louis University, St. Louis Missouri, with a Ph.D. in history, Dr. Tucker has also gained recognition as America's most prolific "New Look" historian in many fields of history. No author has produced more important books about military history, Black history, and Women's history in the last half century than the iconoclastic Tucker. He was a distinct penchant for finding rare gems in history and writing the first-time stories about some of the remarkable men and women, both famous and little-known, in history around the world.
Gifted historian Perry D. Jamieson, Ph.D., wrote a fundamental truth about Tucker: "One of the Innovative, Hardest Working, and Diligently Productive Historians of His Generation." And Dr. Jamieson also penned how: "What separates [Phillip Thomas Tucker, Ph.D.] from other historians is that he is an innovative 'idea person.' I have known very few historians who can match his ability to conceive a topic, develop a fresh approach to it, and write about it in length." Tucker has earned three degrees in the field of history. In 1990, he earned a Ph.D. in history from prestigious St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, the first Jesuit university of higher learning established west of the Mississippi River.
Tucker worked for more than two decades in the prestigious position of a Department of Defense civilian historian, including for the United States Air Force Chief of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and at military bases across the United States. Best known for presenting fresh perspectives and original ideas to demythologize outdated, traditional history, Dr. Tucker has authored more than 200 works in history, including scholarly articles and books, that have overturned established history.
The winner of prestigious national awards and well-known in the history field as a "creative, innovative thinker, who has a gift for conceiving and outlining original works in history in serious history," in the on-target analysis of one veteran historian, Dr. Tucker has emerged as America's most prolific, innovative, hardest-working, and groundbreaking historian in the 21st century.



