GDG- Saturday morning questions: When were Pickett's men ready?

[Alan D. Brunelle]

Is there some consensus regarding the rough times when Pickett's 
division was:

   1. At (or near) Seminary Ridge (rough time as to when the division
      was ready to deploy)

      and

   2. When the brigades were lined up, and the soldiers basically lay
      down and waited for the signal to start

My understanding is that reports for question 1 start from as early as 
8:00am (which may or may not be right based upon a departure time of 
3:30am or later). It seems from the majority of accounts I've read, the 
answer to 2 is in the range of "hours" before 1:00pm (the start of the 
cannonade).

The answer to 2 is mostly predicated upon when the consensus time is for 
Lee to have determined the plan - then you'd add in the time Longstreet 
needed to communicate the idea to Pickett and for Pickett to then deploy 
the brigades. My understanding is that the latter was reasonably "easy" 
to do: the brigades marched forward, and deployed as they came...(In 
contrast, for example, with the deployment of Heth's 2 brigades on day 1 
which was (a) done under fire, (b) required movement on both sides of 
"virgin" ground [Surely, Day 2 activities by Hill's Corps should have 
cleared out some of the stuff in the way one would think], (c) was based 
upon an "idea" on the spot (less upper-level planning), and (d) was done 
by - at least in the case of Davis' brigade - a less experienced commander.)

Alan