Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the “Commanding Ground” Along the Emmitsburg Road
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
More books have been written about the battle of Gettysburg than any other engagement of the Civil War. The historiography of the battle’s second day is usually dominated by the Union’s successful defense of Little Round Top, but the day’s most influential action occurred nearly one mile west along the Emmitsburg Road in farmer Joseph Sherfy’s peach orchard. Despite its overriding importance, no full-length study of this pivotal action has been written until now. James Hessler’s and Britt Isenberg’s Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the “Commanding Ground” Along the Emmitsburg Road corrects that oversight.
On July 2, 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered skeptical subordinate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet to launch a massive assault against the Union left flank. The offensive was intended to seize the Peach Orchard and surrounding ground along the Emmitsburg Road for use as an artillery position to support the ongoing attack. However, Union Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, a scheming former congressman from New York, misinterpreted his orders and occupied the orchard first.
What followed was some of Gettysburg’s bloodiest and most controversial fighting. General Sickles’s questionable advance forced Longstreet’s artillery and infantry to fight for every inch of ground to Cemetery Ridge. The Confederate attack crushed the Peach Orchard salient and other parts of the Union line, threatening the left flank of Maj. Gen. George Meade’s army. The command decisions made in and around the Sherfy property influenced actions on every part of the battlefield. The occupation of the high ground at the Peach Orchard helped General Lee rationalize ordering the tragic July 3 assault known as “Pickett’s Charge.”
This richly detailed study is based upon scores of primary accounts and a deep understanding of the terrain. Hessler and Isenberg, both Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides, combine the military aspects of the fighting with human interest stories in a balanced treatment of the bloody attack and defense of Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard.
James A. Hessler
James A. Hessler is a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg. He is the award-winning author of Sickles at Gettysburg (Savas Beatie, 2009), the recipient of the Bachelder Coddington Award and Gettysburg Civil War Round Table Distinguished Book Award, and co-author of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg (Savas Beatie, 2015). His media appearances include Travel Channel, NPR, PCN-TV, Breitbart News, Civil War Radio, and Gettysburg Daily. He was a primary content designer for the Civil War Trust’s mobile Gettysburg application and has written several articles for publication. He lives with his wife and family in Gettysburg.
Related to Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard
Related ebooks
Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffin's Farm: To Surprise and Capture Richmond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Day at Gettysburg: The Attack and Defense of the Union Center on Cemetery Ridge, July 2, 1863 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gettysburg--The Second Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gettysburg--Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Journal of the American Civil War: V5-3: The Antietam Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGettysburg: The Turning Point in the Struggle between North and South Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Custer at Gettysburg: A New Look at George Armstrong Custer versus Jeb Stuart in the Battle's Climactic Cavalry Charges Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwilight at Little Round Top: July 2, 1863--The Tide Turns at Gettysburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First Day at Gettysburg: Crisis at the Crossroads Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGettysburg--The First Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Lee is Trapped, and Must be Taken": Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4–14, 1863 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg's Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gettysburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gettysburg: Three Days That Saved the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of Brice's Crossroads Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pickett's Charge in History and Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31 - June 1, 1862 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFaces of Union Soldiers at Culp's Hill: Gettysburg's Critical Defense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAttack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6–7, 1862 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIf It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They All Wore a Star: In the Fight for the Four-Gun Battery during the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, May 15, 1864 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Killer Angels (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard
0 ratings0 reviews