The Angle

The Angle is an area within a stone wall that zigzags south, then west, the south again near the Copse of Trees and the Confederate High Water Mark (just out of frame to the left of this photo) on the battlefield of Gettysburg .
Location: 39.81318 N, 77.236068 W; see map

It was the objective of Pickett's Charge on July 3rd, 1863, the last day of the battle. Union troops under Brigadier General John Gibbon defended the stone wall on July 3rd. Confederate troops led by Brigadier General Lewis Armistead broke through their lines and crossed the wall just west of the Copse of Trees in what has come to be regarded as the high point of Confederate military acheivement in the war.

This photo looks west from Hancock Avenue. The western stone wall of The Angle is visible running from left to right across the middle of the photo from monument to the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry on the very left edge of the photo to the monument to the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry in the center. The wall continues, hidden behind a slight rise and the tree, to about the right edge of the photo, then makes a right angle almost directly toward the viewer.

The cannon and caissons are part of the monument to Alonzo Cushing's Battery A, 4th United States Artillery. Directly in front of the cannon is the monument to Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Armistead, who led his men over the stone wall, breaking the Union line. Armistead was mortally wounded here and his men driven back, captured or killed. In the distance to the left is the Codori Farm, where Confederate Major General George Pickett commanded his division in the charge. In the far distance is the tree line wich was the starting point for the attacking Confederate forces.