The Battle of Gettysburg took place over the course of the first three days of the month of July, 1863. It would go down as the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War with a total of fifty-one-thousand killed over the course of three days. Unfortunately, Pickett's Charge, taking place on the last day of the Battle and Lee's last chance to win the war, would be the bloodiest of the three.
Approximately fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers, with three divisions, underneath the command of Generals George Pickett, Johnson Pettigrew and Isaac Trimble, marched three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union Artillery, with no cover anywhere in sight. The men marched forward and were able to breech the low stone wall that shieled the Union soldiers for just a moment. However, they were never able to maintain their hold and were repelled.
Nine brigades suffered a casualty rate of over fifty percent, a decisive defeat that would be the closing of the three-day battle and Lee's campaign into Pennsylvania.
Among the massive loss, Pickett's division, which led the charge, suffered two-thousand-six-hundred-fifty-five casualties. Johson Pettigrew suffered an estimated two-thousand-seven hundred and Trimble eight-hundred-and-eighty-five. Some generals were also among the wounded. Pettigrew and Trimble, the most senior of the generals, were the wounded.
Trimble lost his leg, while Pettigrew was minorly wounded in the hand. However, on the retreat back to Virigina, Pettigrew would be wounded in the abdomen and die of his wounds.
Pickett's division suffered heavy casualties in regards to his field officers. Twelve of his majors, lieutenants and colonels were killed or mortally wounded. Nine were wounded. Four were wounded and captured. And one was captured. All of Pickett's brigade commanders fell as well. James Kemper, a man from Virigina, would be shot in the abdomen and almost captured by the Union Forces. Garnett was shot off his horse by a cannon and was instantly killed.
Lewis Armistead breeched the wall with his men, making the furthest of all the generals, but was shot in the chest. While he lay wounded on the field, a young Lieutenant Thomas Chamberlain would stay with him while the medic was searched for. The young boy would be a testimonial witness to Armistead's plea to see General Winfield Hancock, who had also been wounded. Unfortunately, the two friends never met again.
Armistead would give a package to a Union soldier to give to Almira should he pass on. And, two days later, Armistead would go Home to Glory.
Of the fifteen regimental commanders of Pickett's division, the Virginia Military Institute produced eleven and all were casualties.
Six killed and five wounded.
Both sides were horrified and awed at the destruction that took place in the last dying embers of the third of July. The country was as well, for this was the biggest loss of life in living memory. It broke the already shattered country and voices called out, the cries for blood replaced by the cries for peace. The shouts that clamored for peace grew louder as more and more boys were sent to fight for the old fat men on some battlefield.
And for two Assassins it was a turning point.
Margaret's husband was one of the many Union casualties, his name lost among the multitude that would be buried on the bloodied field. Lionel was hit by a wayward shell, his internal organs becoming liquid at the force of the impact. He survived long enough for the nurses to remove him from the battlefield and take him to the operation stations. Margaret was beside him, holding his hand lovingly as he hissed out an apology for his behavior, his last breath used to say he loved her and he was lucky to have known her, a warrior and poet.
He died at sunset.
Henry managed to sneak out of the Confederate lines and cross the field of dead. No one paid him any attention as he leapt over the low stone wall. Though that made sense, seeing how many soldiers were too busy cleaning up and burying the many dead. He trekked his way, searching high and low for his sister. The man found two men, standing in the field, holding each other in a way that only siblings could, comforting each other in a way that only brothers could. He left them standing in the field of dead, until he heard a wail of heartbreak.
He followed it until he came to his sister.
His poor sister would never recover from that or the wound to her ear she received when a cannonball went off too close to her head.
Both Assassins were shattered by the battle of Gettysburg. They were unable to do anything for three weeks after the battle, just numbly going through the rising and falling of the sun. The two were there when President Lincoln arrived to address the people of the nation, but neither one of them could process the words that would become known as the Gettysburg Address. Margaret was numb in her grief, wanting nothing more than to travel home and embrace her children, who at this point had already heard of their father's death.
But then the orders came from Mentor Kellan. She had heard about the Assassins' failures but understood that the task was both Herculean and Sisyphean in nature, and that not even God could halt the bloodshed.
They were allowed a little reprieve. Then, they were to continue their involvement in the fight. Henry was to travel behind the Confederate Army, while Margaret was to return to Maryland to train some initiates.
And so, for the rest of the war, both siblings kept in touch through letters but never saw each other, witnessing one event after another that would be recorded in the history books.
And then…. finally, peace.
After four years of fighting, General Lee would be surrounded by Union forces in Petersburg. His forces would be outnumbered, outgunned. They would be too thin to push through the lines of the Union army, and after several days, on the nineth of April, 1865, General Lee would formally surrender to Union General Ulyssess Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.
Thus, ending the American Civil War.
In the South, the Templars would wail their fury at the defeat. In the North, the Assassins would celebrate their victory. But the fight would not be over when Grant ordered the last Confederate to put down their arms and to go home. It would not cease when two aged men, both fiercely loyal to their country and their home, signed their names on the dotted lines.
No, the fight would continue well after the surrender.
And no one would be able to predict the outcome one more gunshot, fired in the nation's capital, would produce.