three o'clock
Along two miles on this crest they had planted a hundred and fifty guns . Suddenly two miles of flame burst from the hills in a single fiery wreath . The Federal guns answered until the heavens were a hell of bursting , screaming , roaring shells . At three o'clock the storm died away and the smoke lifted . Pickett 's men were deploying in the plain to charge the heights of Cemetery Ridge . Fifteen thousand heroic men were forming their line to rush a hill on whose crest lay seventy-five thousand entrenched soldiers backed by four hundred guns . Pickett 's bands played as on parade .