The Peach Orchard is on Emmitsburg Road about a mile and a half south of Gettysburg at the intersection with Wheatfield Road – Millerstown Road. The orchard was owned by Joseph Sherfy, whose house and barn still stand a short distance north on Emmitsburg Road. The orchard is much smaller today than in 1863, when it extended north to the Sherfy farm buildings. It was badly damaged in the fighting, but Sherfy repaired and replanted, selling canned peaches which were prominently advertised as coming from the Gettysburg battlefield. (see Monument map – Peach Orchard)
On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg Union 3rd Corps commander Daniel Sickles advanced to occupy the Peach Orchard, feeling that the high ground there dominated his defensive line. The advance forced the 3rd Corps to cover far too much ground, and it had barely taken its new position when Longstreet’s attack struck. The Confederates overran the Peach Orchard and threatened the entire Union flank in the heaviest fighting of the battle.
The photo below looks north from near the monument to the 3rd Michigan Infantry on Birney Avenue. On the very left the larger of two monuments to the 68th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment peeks over the high ground of the Peach Orchard from the north side of Wheatfield Road, which runs left to right out of sight behind the rise of the ground. In the middle of the photo the monument to the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment shows where Birney Avenue intersects with Wheatfield Road.
The photo below is taken facing south from Wheatfield Road and looks at the northwest corner of the Peach Orchard. Emmitsburg Road can be just seen on the far right before it continues on to the center of the photograph past the monument and cannon of Battery G, 1st New York Light Artillery, and on past the smaller of the two monuments to the 68th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, just visible to the right of center. Four headquarters markers are arrayed diagonally across the corner, representing the Third Army Corps, its First and Second Divisions, and its Artillery Brigade.
