Book Review

Writers from William Faulkner to Michael Shaara have suggested that the white-hot center of Confederate memory is Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. In this biography, Lesley J. Gordon suggests the white-hot center of George Pickett is: LaSalle Corbell Pickett. Pickett's wife of twelve years and widow of over fifty-five turned her husband into a virtual cottage industry between his death in 1875 and her own in 1931, becoming a powerful—and, at times, frustrating—figure in the path of subsequent biographers. The novelty of this elegantly written book resides in the degree to which Gordon, rather than relying heavily on LaSalle, complaining about her, or both, as previous researchers have done, carefully sifts through her various accounts and separates fact from fiction—and suggests the truths that reside in fiction.

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In Gordon's telling, Pickett emerges as a man of modest talent who spent much of life simply over his head. The scion of a decaying plantation family, he was an indifferent student of little ambition for much of his youth. Family connections secured Pickett a slot at West Point, where he narrowly escaped expulsion for poor performance in the class of 1846. The outbreak of the Mexican War gave Pickett an opportunity to prove himself, however, and distinguished service there cemented his identity as a professional soldier.

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