Touring the Peach Tree Orchard at Gettysburg

Eric & I see a tour group
on horseback near the
Peach Tree Orchard.

The tour guide waves orange

flags to halt traffic while

 the group crosses the road.

(Several local companies
provide this service.)

General Daniel Sickles, was a politician from New York, not a professional soldier.  With very little military and battlefield experience, Sickles would prove to be a danger to himself, troops under his command (the Third Corps) and the Army of the Potomac.

The Third Corps Monument

General George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, positioned Sickles and the Third Corps south of Cemetery Ridge.  Sickles looked around and saw higher ground nearby. He disobeyed orders and moved his troops  to the Peach Tree Orchard, creating a bulge in the Union lines, with fewer men to defend it.

Seeing an opportunity, Confederate artillery pounded Sickles' lines.  After several hours of enemy shelling,  Confederate troops under the command of General James Longstreet attacked and pushed Sickles' troops across the orchard, breaking the Union's lines. Reinforcements were sent in to cover Sickles' retreat to Cemetery Ridge.

This map shows General

Longstreet's troops breaking

through General Sickles'

lines in the Peach Tree Orchard.

Map by Hal Jespersen

www.posix.com/CW

       

The 7th New Jersey rushed to

reinforce Sickles' collapsing 

lines at the Peach Tree Orchard.

Fighting was fierce around the Trostle Farm.   Hundreds lay wounded and dying around the barn and in the fields.

General Sickles' inability to follow orders lead to the unnecessary loss of Union soldiers and ground on July 2.  

 

The Excelsior Brigade Monument

honors the 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd &

74th New York Volunteer Infantry

Regiments

Confederate General Robert E. Lee continued to plan his offensive for the next day, July 3.

General Sickles was injured in the day's fighting and his right leg was amputated.  General Meade did not court martial him.