Farnsworth's Charge: The Last Assault at Gettysburg
Pennsylvania
On July third, eighteen sixty-three, as Pickett's Charge was repulsed on Cemetery Ridge, Union cavalry commander Judson Kilpatrick ordered Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth to lead a mounted assault against Confederate infantry on the far right of the Southern line. Farnsworth protested that a cavalry charge against entrenched infantry was suicidal. Kilpatrick reportedly questioned his courage.
Farnsworth led the charge anyway. He was killed within minutes, shot five times. The attack accomplished little militarily and Kilpatrick was widely blamed for throwing away cavalry lives needlessly.
Farnsworth had been a brigadier general for only three days when he died. His commander Kilpatrick earned the enduring nickname 'Kill Cavalry' from his own troopers. The site here on Big Round Top marks the southern end of the entire three-day battle at Gettysburg.
