 Gettysburg National Military Park
Virtual Tour - Day Two
The Peach Orchard
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The Peach Orchard and Emmitsburg Road.
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The advanced Union line arranged by General Sickles stretched from Devil's Den to this large Peach Orchard, located orchard at the intersection of Wheatfield Road and the Emmitsburg Road. The orchard was owned by Joseph Sherfy whose house sat on the west side of the Emmitsburg Road. Mr. Sherfy maintained a substantial orchard of peach and apple trees and operated a small fruit canning business from his home. Not only were Mr. Sherfy's orchards ruined during the battle but his house was ransacked, his fences torn apart by Union troops and Confederate artillerymen, crops trampled, and his barn burned to the ground at the height of the fighting. But it was the location of Sherfy's orchard that made it important as piece of high ground overlooking the farm fields to the west between the Emmitsburg Road and Seminary Ridge. To make the Peach Orchard a strong position, four Union batteries were initially posted here. These guns bombarded southern forces on Seminary Ridge and Warfield Ridge and fired on Kershaw's men crossing the Rose Farm to attack the Wheatfield. The batteries continued firing until about 6:30 P.M. when a final Confederate charge by General William Barksdale's Mississippi brigade shattered the position.
Joseph Sherfy's House on the Emmitsburg Road. The monument to the 114th PA Infantry stands in the front yard of the home.
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The Union infantry posted here belonged to Brigadier General Charles Graham, whose pre-war career included a stint in the United States Navy, the study of law, and a career as an engineer during which time he assisted with the design of Central Park in New York City and the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Graham now found himself in a bad fix, with his brigade jammed up behind artillery limbers and under heavy artillery fire. He shifted his regiments to stop the Confederate attacks from the southern direction, but could hardly bolster his right flank before Barksdale's soldiers snapped through the thin Union line after overpowering two of Graham's Union regiments placed just west of the Sherfy house. The combatants swept around the bullet riddled house while wounded soldiers, seeking protection, crawled into the house, barn and any other building that offered some form of sanctuary. The fiery Barksdale cursed and whipped his men forward across the Emmitsburg Road, north of the Peach Orchard where Union gunners and infantrymen found themselves overrun and surrounded. In the melee that followed, General Graham was knocked from his horse and captured as his brigade disintegrated. The "Excelsior Brigade" of New York regiments, positioned in the orchard and along the Emmitsburg Road, fought back furiously and temporarily blocked the center regiments of the Mississippi brigade. The 73rd New York Infantry raced into fill a sudden gap in the line and hit Barksdale's soldiers head on. It was no use- within minutes the fight in front of the Sherfy House was over and the New Yorkers were ordered to retreat so that they would not be outflanked by the Confederates who were then sweeping around the tightening knots of Union defenders.
With the positions at the Peach Orchard crushed, Sickles' delicate line could no longer be held. Closely followed by General Wofford's Georgia brigade, the Mississippi brigade seemed unstoppable as they pushed through the Peach Orchard and into the valley toward Cemetery Ridge. The fields ahead were filled with confused, splintered Yankee regiments and retreating artillery, an inviting prize for the battle hardened men.
General A.A. Humphreys, in command of the Union division on the Emmitsburg Road, resolved to fight a stubborn withdrawal and slowly pulled his men back, stopping to turn and fire on Barksdale's men who were soon joined by two additional southern brigades from A.P. Hill's Corps. The field between the road and Plum Run was soon covered with blue-clad bodies as Humphreys' men stubbornly bought time with their lives. Yet they gave most of the Union artillery the precious time they needed to get away and reform on Cemetery Ridge.
Captain Charles Phillips and gunners of the 5th Massachusetts Battery drag a gun by the Trostle Barn as Confederates close in. An eyewitness sketch by Charles Reed drawn soon after the battle.
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Union batteries positioned on the Wheatfield Road had only seconds to spare to make their escape. South Carolinians rushed from the Rose Farm toward the road, shooting as they ran while desperate gunners dragged their heavy guns to the rear by hand. The 5th Massachusetts Battery had lost so many horses that guns, limbers and caissons had to be dragged off by man power, stopping only long enough to load and hastily fire canister at their pursuers. The last battery to leave was the 9th Massachusetts Battery. Horses and gunners tow their guns across the pasture toward the Trostle Farm buildings, stopping just long enough blast rounds of canister into pursuing infantry. The South Carolina soldiers were soon joined by the 21st Mississippi of Barksdale's brigade who joined in the pursuit of the fleeing artillerymen.
The artillerymen could only delay the inevitable. The Confederate attack was sweeping over and around the Peach Orchard from three directions. As the Third Corps line crumbled, the vulnerable center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge was exposed. Only a token force of Union infantry and several batteries were available to fill this inviting gap. It was Lt. Colonel Freeman McGilvery, whose artillerymen had already been fought to pieces, who recognized the emergency. He dashed off to gather what batteries he could to fill the gap as the Confederates swarmed through the Trostle Farm and Plum Run area, your next stop.
Union guns in the Peach Orchard
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The Peach Orchard today is on the same ground where part of the original orchard stood. The orchard was much larger in 1863, the bulk extending northward of the Wheatfield Road in front of the Sherfy House. Sherfy's orchard was heavily damaged by the fighting, the trees broken and cut. Sherfy repaired and salvaged as many of the trees as possible, then planted new ones to replace those lost. He also sold canned peaches from his orchard with an advertisement authenticating them from his original peach trees on the battleground. Strategically, the southern capture of the Peach Orchard and Emmitsburg Road gave Confederate artillerists an excellent position to fire on the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Yet there was also a disadvantage- cannon, gunners, and horses alike were exposed on the top of the ridge and vulnerable to accurate Union artillery. On July 3rd, the Washington Artillery of New Orleans was positioned in the northern section of the orchard and fired two signal guns to open the cannonade prior to "Pickett's Charge".
Dan Sickles and the Gettysburg Battlefield
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General Sickles visited the Gettysburg battlefield many times after the war, often as an invited guest of battlefield historian John Bachelder. Sickles' interest in the development and care of the battlefield never waned, and he was active supporter of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. While representing the state of New York in congress, it was Representative Sickles who introduced the bill to establish Gettysburg National Military Park and transfer the property to the Federal government in 1895. It was during one visit in the 1880's when the general stopped by his old headquarters site at the Trostle Farm. Accompanying the former corps commander were two of his brigadiers who also had fought at Gettysburg, General Joseph B. Carr (left) and General Charles K. Graham (right). Both stand with the one-legged general at the site where he was wounded on July 2nd. General Graham was also wounded during the battle and captured by Confederates near the Peach Orchard. General Carr commanded the Union troops arrayed along the Emmitsburg Road. A granite monument that commemorates the general's crippling wound now stands at this site.
Twenty five years after the battle, Generals Carr, Sickles, and Graham stand by the Trostle Barn where Sickles was wounded July 2.
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The same location today. The monument marks the site where General Sickles was wounded and was dedicated in 1901.
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Sickles' last visit to Gettysburg was in 1913 as a special guest during the 50th Anniversary Celebration and Grand Reunion. The general established a headquarters in the Rogers House on the Emmitsburg Road, where he received many veteran visitors. When asked whether he was disappointed that there was no monument to him on the battlefield, the proud old man replied, "Hell, the whole battlefield is my monument!"
Stubborn and defiant to the very end, General Sickles died in New York on May 3, 1914, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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Gettysburg National Military Park
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