2. West Confederate Avenue (north)
The northern one-mile stretch of West Confederate Avenue – from the intersection with the Fairfield Road south to the location of the North Carolina and Tennessee state monuments – contains 25 photographically confirmed witness trees. The section from where the McMillan Woods campground road intersects West Confederate Avenue down to the two state monuments – identified on the map to the left as the Pegram Battalion Group – contains the highest concentration of confirmed witness trees on the battlefield.
An oddity presents itself here: the most famous participants of Pickett’s Charge were the Virginians of Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett’s division; but there are no photographically confirmed witness trees – yet – amongst those troops. The Witness Trees interspersed throughout Pegram’s Battalion, Ross’s Battery, and the Charlotte N.C. Artillery (ie. where the North Carolina and Tennessee state monuments stand) instead mark the location from where the other half – the left wing – of Pickett’s Charge commenced: we are talking here of the men of Brig. Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew’s division, greybacks from North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as Virginians from Col. John Brockenbrough’s brigade.