"We were in the wheatfield and the grain stood almost breast high. The rebs had their slight protection, but we were in the open, without a thing better than a wheat straw to catch a Minnie' bullet that weighed an ounce. Of course, our men began to tumble..." - Lieutenant Charles A. Fuller, 61st New York Infantry.

On July 2, in conjunction with the Confederate attacks on the Peach Orchard to the left and Devils Den to the right, the combined assault of the Confederate brigades of generals' Joseph B. Kershaw and Paul J. Semmes overran Stony Hill and spilled over into the Wheatfield.

Taking Stony Hill was vital, as it gave the Confederates assailing this sector of the battlefield a commanding view of the Wheatfield, the Union artillery deployed along Wheatfield Road, and the entire flank and rear of the Union lines southeast of the Wheatfield.

Just as it seemed that the Confederates had gained complete control of the Wheatfield, Caldwell threw in reserves which provided enough "shock value" to drive the Confederates back across all the ground they had gained.

Without reinforcements, it seemed likely that the Confederate troops under Kershaw and Semmes had been stymied. Both had been hotly engaged in a bloody see-saw struggle, and a renewed attack to seize the Wheatfield without assistance was unlikely at this point.

It was then that troops under Confederate General William T. Wofford appeared on the left of Kershaw's troops and provided the force necessary to re-engage. Wofford advanced, with Kershaw rallying his troops and following, joined by those of Semmes.

This combined multi-brigade push drove the gathering Union troops again across the Wheatfield, this time all the way to Houck's Ridge overlooking the Valley of Death at the foot of Little Round Top.

Just as victory seemed assured by the Confederates in securing Houck's Ridge (a potential launching point for a final grand assault on Little Round Top), Wofford, Kershaw and Semmes' exhausted Confederates were struck by a fresh Union brigade under Colonel William McCandless.

McCandless' assault pushed the Confederates back into the Wheatfield, and Houck's Ridge was lost to Union troops. The ridge would not be taken again by the Confederates. On the other hand, the Wheatfield would not be taken again by the Union troops.

McCandless' attack stalled along the Houck's Ridge edge of the Wheatfield and he could make no further progress in clearing the field of the Confederates.

Darkness soon put an end to practical combat, and the Confederate troops involved spent the night in control of the Wheatfield. There would be no further action long this front other than minor skirmishing for the rest of the battle.

If the fight for Culp's Hill was one of the bloodiest during the three-day battle at Gettysburg, the fight to control the Wheatfield during the second day of battle was one of the most desperate. When the smoke cleared, thousands of dead and wounded Confederate and Union soldiers littered the field from Stony Hill, through the furiously-contested Wheatfield, and into the Valley of Death. And for all the bloodshed, neither army really controlled the field by nightfall.

Technically, the Battle of the Wheatfield was a Confederate victory on the field because the main purpose of attacking it was to neutralize the Union artillery which lined the Wheatfield Road and poured shot and shell into Confederate positions from the Peach Orchard, to the Devils Den, and the base of Little Round Top.

This, they succeeded after a bloody back-and-forth battle that see-sawed for two hours. The Confederates would sweep the field of Northern troops, only to be driven back themselves and forced to charge again. The Wheatfield changed hands eight times before the Confederates finally controlled the field, but Union forces that were lodged along the eastern edge held on for dear life for the duration of the contest.

On the other hand, the Confederates' grand strategy behind taking the Wheatfield was to clear it of Union resistance in order to allow a general Confederate assault on the Valley of Death and on to Cemetery Hill, of which Little Round Top was viewed as the flank. In this they failed.