Yeah, standing at The Angle and watching, in my mind's eye, Picket's division lined up and marching toward me across that open field, made me wonder what it must have been like for those Confederates. They had to know that they might not survive. It took a lot of personal courage to step out of the treeline and make that charge. If I had been there at 18 years-of-age, I probably would have stepped out too. But if I had been 30 at the time, I don't think I would have.
Oh, and btw, I did some further research on the battle of Saylor's Creek. I know I had read or heard that Lee had ordered a futile breakout and lost many troops. But I can't find anything to confirm that now.
I think I may have read this account and that's how it got planted in my brain.
On 25 March, Lee attempted to retake the initiative and relieve the pressure on his lines by attacking the extreme right of the Federal defenses southeast of Petersburg. At the recommendation of General John B. Gordon, Lee ordered a daring night assault on Union held Fort Stedman. 19 Gordon’s men, wielding axes and marked by white scarves to prevent fratricide during the close quarters night fighting, successfully infiltrated Federal pickets and were initially successful in taking the fort. 20 However, the weakness of the Confederate forces proved a fatal factor when Lee was unable to support Gordon’s breakthrough of the Union lines. 21 Gordon acknowledged that the assault was the “last supreme effort to break the hold 7 of General Grant. . . . [and] was the expiring struggle of the Confederate giant, whose strength was nearly exhausted and whose limbs were heavily shackled by the most onerous conditions.” 22 Lee might not have shown his men that defeat was inevitable, but his sons, upon seeing him riding back to headquarters from the failed assault, noticed “the sadness of his face.” 23 For Lee knew that his last valiant, but desperate effort to break the Union siege had failed
https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/4818/etd-tamu-2005C-HIST-Smith.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y