Losing this ground on his left, Lee had to change his programme of attack. A lull in operations therefore occurred, during which he rearranged his battle lines and concentrated his artillery with reference to a heavy assault upon the Federal centre and left. The strength of the National line, stretching along Cemetery Ridge, and out up to the Round Top fastness, Lee so well appreciated that he brought into requisition his every available gun. Before noon he had in place, beyond the Emmetsburg road on the extension of Seminary Ridge and to the south of it, about one hundred twenty-five guns, with which to demoralize the Union line preparatory to his final and most desperate effort to obtain a foothold on Cemetery Ridge. Pickett's division (Longstreet's corps) having reached the field too late for the previous day's battle, was assigned the post of honor, the van of the column of assault. It was strengthened by Wilcox's brigade of Anderson's division on its right, and Heth's division, commanded by Pettigrew, on the left.
Early in the afternoon the artillery from Seminary Ridge and Longstreet's centre opened with all the power of its metal. The outburst was so sudden and startling, and the shower of hurtled missiles so concentrated in range, that for a few minutes the Federal line was stunned, and the troops shrank away as from a sirocco, everywhere seeking the cover of rocks and the temporary fortifications. Eighty Federal guns answered, and the contest assumed sublime proportions. The hills seemed to tremble and rock. Shot and shell shrieked through the dun pall of sulphurous smoke which filled all the air; the ground was torn and seamed in the thousand places where the thunderbolts struck. [Said Doubleday: "They had our exact range, and the destruction was fearful. Horses were killed in every direction. I lost two horses myself, while almost every officer lost one or more, and quite a large number of caissons were blown up." The ruin wrought in the cemetery was complete. That sacred resting-place became truly a city of the dead before nightfall of that momentous day. Said Hancock: "It was a most terrific and appalling cannonade, one possibly hardly ever paralleled. I doubt whether there have ever been more guns concentrated upon an equal space and opening at one time."] The Federal gunners, reeking with sweat as they worked beneath the half-suppressed blaze of a midsummer sun, grew more frenzied with every loss; and when ordered to the rear to make way for a fresh gun and men, left the charmed circle of fire and death with the reluctance of unsated vengeance.
This combat continued two hours, when, finding his ammunition running low, and it being too dangerous to bring forward more, Hunt ordered a gradual cessation of the fire along the line. This was regarded by the enemy as indicative of silenced power, and their own guns ceased, as if satisfied that their preliminary work was done. The assaulting column advanced to the edge of the woods covering the side of Seminary Ridge. The formation was in two battle lines, Kemper's and Garnett's brigades in front, sustained by Armistead's regiments. This column was flanked by wings, composed, as already stated, of Wilcox's brigade on the right, and Heth's division, commanded by Pettigrew, on the left. As soon as it passed the Emmetsburg road the Federal artillery opened, and continued to play on the ranks, from Round Top to the cemetery, wherever the intervening woods permitted an aim. This fire told severely on the advance. When at length the column began to ascend the ridge's western slope, the musketry opened from sections of the Federal line, though the artillery never for a moment ceased to hurl destruction through and through the oncoming brigades. Only men used to death and to perfect submission to command could preserve ranks under such a fire. Great gaps, literal windrows, would follow a well directed shot, only to be closed up again by the unflinching mass.
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
– Matthew 6:24