And when the South did advance and take the war to the North, in places like Gettysburg, it often backfired on the South. .

             The Battle of Gettysburg and Pickett's Charge.

             What was the war's bloodiest day? Was it Gettysburg? No. It occurred in September, 1862, at Antietam Creek in Maryland, when 22,700 soldiers died. "[General] Lee "hoped to win decisively.but the Union army prevailed".

             Meantime, the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1 through July 3, 1863, was the bloodiest battle of the war. It was the "most famous and most important Civil War Battle. [General Lee] believed his own [rebel] army was invincible." Potter asserts. But in fact the Confederates suffered an estimated 28,000 casualties (out of 75,000 men in battle) and the Union lost 23,000 out of 88,000 - albeit, the Union won the battle. Doing the math one comes up with around 51,000 deaths on that blood-drenched, corpse-cluttered battlefield. .

             Questions as to the mistakes made by the Confederate army at Gettysburg are still being asked, and analysis regarding General George Pickett's ill-fated charge at Gettysburg - and who truly is to be held accountable - likely will never truly end, as long as there are history books, first-person records, and intelligent people to engage in dialog. .

             Who was General George Pickett? An article in Civil War Times (Selcer 2005) points to the possibility that Abraham Lincoln "personally arranged for George Pickett's admission into West Point in 1842. While the author can't verify this interesting tidbit of history - there are arguments to be made for and against the claim - if the story is true, "then Lincoln perhaps bears some of the blame for the debacles associated with.Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, the 1864 Bern hangings, and the Confederate rout at Five Folks in March 1865.".

             Pickett, "a roguish, controversial fellow," in Selcer's view, nevertheless is among a select few Confederate general officers - "including J.