Sorry, I guess my first post didn't really address the subject of the distance of Pickett's Charge and the position of the Virginia Monument in relation to the charge. The best map I have looked at comes from Scott Bowden and Bill Wards book "Last Chance for Victory, Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign". With the scale included on the map and the positions of troops it would appear that the longest distance for troops on the field were those under Pettigrew's and Trimble's Commands. It looks from this map that Armistead's men were formed almost exactly where the Virginia Monument is today with Garnett, Kemper, and Wilcox even further south. From the artillery in front of Armistead to the front most guns on the Federal side it is about 1300 yards. A bit shy of a mile. Dearings guns were even closer to the Federal line at about 1000 yards extending from Peter Rodger's Farm on the north to The Sherfy Farm to the south. This position being the approximate center of Kemper's advance. From this I would estimate the actual distance from the Virginia Monument and the right center of the troops assembled for the charge and the copse of trees to be just under 1500 yards. Armistead assembled in the trees between Spangler's Woods to the north and The Spangler Farm to the south. The distance between these two points being approximately 500 yards. Just my interpretation from the maps Ihave studied.

Keith