Artillery Duel for the Peach Orchard "I don't think there was ever in our war a hotter, harder, sharper artillery afternoon than this." - Confederate Colonel Edward P. Alexander, Alexander's Battalion. On July 2, 1863, farmer Sherfy's Peach Orchard, located along Emmitsburg Road, represented the apex of Sickles' Bulge. From here, the left of Sickles' line extended back through Stony Hill, the Wheatfield and to the Devils Den. Sickles' right extended from the Peach Orchard along Emmitsburg Road to the Codori Farm. The primary problem with the deployment is that it formed an angle with the Peach Orchard at the apex. This meant that the critical point of Sickles' wedge-shaped battleline could be subjected to assault from two sides. The Peach Orchard would be defended by Union Brigadier General Charles K. Graham of the Third Army Corps and nine Union artillery batteries in the immediate vicinity, not including available long-range artillery support from Cemetery Ridge and other elevations. The fight to break the apex of Sickles' Bulge began with an intense artillery duel, intended to supress the Union batteries in and around the Peach Orchard and soften Union infantry resistance preparitory to the Confederate infantry assault. On the Confederate side, Colonel Edward P. Alexander's Artillery Battalion and Colonel Henry Coalter Cabell's artillery would pound the Union position with shot and shell. The artillery duel, which began around 4 p.m. (July 2) lasted for nearly two and a half hours, according to Confederate and Union military participants and Gettysburg civilians. One Gettysburg resident entered into her diary, "About 4 o'clock p.m. the storm burst again with terrible violence. It seemed as though heaven and earth were being rolled together." As the intense artillery fight neared its climax, preparitory to the Confederate charge, there were over 40 Union artillery pieces involved in the field from the Peach Orchard, Wheatfield Road and the Trostle Farm, and even more from other elevated positions. Confederate Colonel Edward P. Alexander estimated that the Union forces could have brought as many as 100 guns from various positions to bear on the ensuing fight. The Confederates had amassed some 50 cannon and brought them all to bare on the Union guns, many of the guns dueling as close as only six hundred yards from their intended targets. The Confederate guns had the general advantage of cover, many of them firing from treelines (Pitzer's Woods and the woods south of Wheatfield Road), while the majority of the Union guns were in the relative open, and they, along with the Union infantry, were getting pounded mercilessly. "I had hoped, with my 54 guns and close range, to make it short, and decisive. At close range there was less inequality in our guns, and especially in our ammunition (Confederate fused ammunition was reknowned for being faulty), and I thought that if ever I could overwhelm and crush them I would do it now." - Confederate Colonel Edward P. Alexander, Alexander's Battalion. Around 6:30 p.m., Confederate First Army Corps Lieutenent James Longstreet concluded that the artillery had done all they could to damage the Federal positions, and he sent word for the infantry assault on the Peach Orchard to commence. Peach Orchard History The Artillery Duel - Barksdale's Charge - Images of the Aftermath