At a critical time during the battle of Gettysburg, Custer eliminated General Jeb Stuart’s southern cavalry force as a major threat by leading two charges of northern cavalry against it. Therefore General Pickett’s unsupported charge of southern infantry was going to have to succeed solely by itself. This would mean that Pickett’s troops would have to cross over a mile of open ground while exposed to the devastating fire from an estimated 180 Union cannons. (This estimate is roughly half of the 372 Union cannons in use throughout the Gettysburg battlefield.)

The reader might recall that the Ge...