He is best remembered for being one of the commanders at Pickett's Charge, the futile and bloody Confederate offensive on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name.

Near the beginning of the American Civil War, he was commissioned in the Confederate States Army, and attained the rank of brigadier general in January 1862.

However, it was one of three divisions under the command of General Longstreet to participate in a disastrous assault on Union positions on July 3, the final day of the battle.

"[2] George Edward Pickett was born in his grandfather's shop in Richmond, Virginia, on January 16, 1825, and raised on his family's plantation at Turkey Island.

[citation needed] Lincoln, as an Illinois state legislator, could not nominate candidates, although he did give the young man advice after he was accepted.

He was mischievous and a player of pranks, "a man of ability, but belonging to a cadet set that appeared to have no ambition for class standing and wanted to do only enough study to secure their graduation.

[11] Ordinarily, such a showing would be a ticket to an obscure posting and a dead-end career, but Pickett, like George Armstrong Custer a generation later, had the fortune to graduate just as a war broke out, resulting in a sudden need for many junior army officers.

"[25] Pickett's presence and determination prevented the landing, the British being under orders to avoid armed conflict with United States forces, if possible.

Having this error pointed out to him, he moved the camp and battery a few miles north to high ground, to a spot overlooking Griffin Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

President James Buchanan dispatched Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott to negotiate a settlement between the parties.

[27] On April 19, after the firing on Battle of Fort Sumter and in response to President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion, Virginia joined three more Southern states in seceding from the Union.

His hair was the talk of the Army: "long ringlets flowed loosely over his shoulders, trimmed and highly perfumed, his beard likewise was curling and giving up the scent of Araby.

[32] The shoulder wound turned out to be severe enough that, though it was not fatal, Pickett was out of action for the next three months, and his arm would remain stiff for at least a year.

Shortly afterwards his division was upgraded to five brigades, commanded by Generals Garnett, James L. Kemper, Lewis Armistead, Montgomery Dent Corse and Micah Jenkins.

[34] Longstreet and two of his divisions—those commanded by Pickett and John Bell Hood—were detached from Lee's main army in April while participating in the Suffolk Campaign.

[35] Before the Gettysburg Campaign, Pickett fell in love with a Virginia teenager, LaSalle "Sallie" Corbell (1843–1931), commuting back and forth from his duties in Suffolk to be with her.

[39] At Suffolk, Longstreet grew impatient with Pickett's frequent trips away from his division to see Sallie at her home in nearby Chuckatuck.

[45] Following a two-hour artillery barrage meant to soften up the Union defenses, the three divisions stepped off across open fields almost a mile from Cemetery Ridge.

Neither of the other two divisions made comparable progress across the fields; Armistead's success was not reinforced, and his men were quickly killed or captured.

Following the battle, Pickett ordered the execution of 22 United States Army soldiers of the 2nd North Carolina Union Volunteer Infantry Regiment who were captured during the failed raid.

[55] After the war Pickett fled to Canada to escape an investigation into the executions, but he returned to the United States after being promised by General Grant, to public controversy, that he would not face prosecution.

After P. G. T. Beauregard bottled up Benjamin Butler in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, Pickett's division was detached in support of Robert E. Lee's operation in the Overland Campaign, just before the Battle of Cold Harbor, in which Pickett's division occupied the center of the defensive line, a place in which the main Union attack did not occur.

Thus in Pickett's official report to Taylor he speaks of commanding his men and interacting with his superior officer right up until the surrender at Appomattox.

[65] A legend told by Pickett's widow stated that when the Union Army marched into Richmond, she received a surprise visitor.

Abraham Lincoln himself, the story goes, had come to determine the fate of an old acquaintance before the wars, and Sallie, astonished, admitted she was his wife and held out her infant for the president to cradle.

Testimony at the hearings, including that of wartime North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance, alleged that at least some of the executed men had belonged to local militias and been unwillingly transferred to the regular Confederate army in "violation of their enlistment agreement," and thus should not have been treated as deserters and shot.

Late in his life, Colonel John S. Mosby, who had served under General J. E. B. Stuart, was present when Lee and Pickett met briefly after the war.

[79] In early 1998, the Military Order of the Stars and Bars and United Daughters of the Confederacy worked together to pay for LaSalle's disinterment and reburial in front of the George E. Pickett Memorial in Hollywood Cemetery.

[83] Pickett today is widely perceived as being a tragic hero of sorts—a flamboyant officer who wanted to lead his troops into a glorious battle, but always missed the opportunity until the disastrous charge at Gettysburg.

It was completed in 1942 and served as an active U.S. Army training facility in World War II and is currently occupied by the Virginia National Guard.