Only if the federal defenders had lost courage and left their posts. As long as the Union men were in position, they had every chance to stop this juggernaut and perhaps to destroy it in the process.

Pickett’s men moved at regulation march, 110 paces per minute. No quick-step was allowed. Who was more frightened, or awed, by the moment is difficult to say. Not until the advent of the moving camera, and the filming of movies such as Gettysburg, could anyone examine the moment from the perspective of each side. In the moment, one was either a Confederate, launched on the one-mile march, or one was a federal, gazing down on the sublime, but also terrible, scene.