The Peach Orchard The Peach Orchard is a Gettysburg Battlefield site at the southeast corner of the north - south Emmitsburg Road intersection with the Wheatfield Road . The orchard is demarcated on the east and south by Birney Avenue , which provides access to various memorials regarding the " " momentous attacks and counterattacks in … the orchard on the afternoon of July 2 , 1863 . " " Geography . The Peach Orchard is on a hornfel along the northwest edge of the local geologic diabase sheet and at the " angle of the Peach Orchard " formed by the vertex of 2 low ridges : " one from Devil ' s Den , the other along the Emmitsburg road . " The orchard drains southward into Rose Run , through Rose Woods , to Plum Run ; and the orchard tract has a modern north - south embankment along the Emmitsburg road to the west of which a drainage depression separates the orchard from Warfield Ridge . History . By 1858 on the southeast corner of the crossroads , the Peach Orchard had been planted by Reverend Joseph Sherfy , who had a homestead to the north on the opposite ( west ) side of the Emmitsburg Road . On the Battle of Gettysburg , Second Day , the " The Peach Orchard Salient " military position of the Army of the Potomac had been established from the " angle of the Peach Orchard " both northward along the Emmitsburg Rd and , for the " Wheatfield Road line " , eastward . Union positions in the orchard prior to the July 2 military engagements included the on the west side at the south point of Graham ' s Emmitsburg Rd line , the 3rd Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment on the orchard ' s south ( downhill ) side near the Emmitsburg Rd , and on the north side of the orchard along the south side of the east - west road , Thompson ' s cannons and , closer to the Emmitsburg Rd , Ames ' cannons . " It was three o ' clock before [ Confederate ] Colonel Alexander , of Longstreet ' s corps , had his batteries unlimbered in the edge of the woods west and south of the peach orchard . " Military engagements . Peach Orchard combat began with Union artillery in the orchard counterfiring on Alexander ' s batteries which reduced Ames ' supply of Union cannon ammunition . When Hood ' s Assault advanced eastward over the Emmitsburg Rd and across the slope south of the orchard , " " Ames had all of his spherical case " [ ammunition ] " carried to his left section , Lt . James B . Hazelton ' s , " " to fire on the infantry , while Ames ' " " center and right sections continued their counterbattery fire with shot . " " With the Confederate left flank to the south exposed to the orchard ' s Union forces , the cannon and infantry in the " Peach Orchard were able to rake Kershaw ' s lines severely " . As Union officer Watson ' s guns fired a last volley of canister at the Carolinians , the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry advanced southward into " the Peach Orchard to save the [ Watson ] guns … crowding between the limbers and guns , reformed , and emerged at the orchard ' s southwest corner , its right extending to the Emmitsburg Road . " " The Second opened fire on the South Carolinians in its front , the Second Battalion and the Eighth Regiment . The South Carolinians … fell back to the bottom of the slope 150 or so yards from the orchard ' s edge . Bailey then shifted the Second ' s line to the rear of some fence rails that were piled along the side of the orchard where a fence had been . " At the 6 p . m . start of McLaws ' Assault , Barksdale ' s and Wofford ' s Confederate brigades charged from the west directly into the Peach Orchard . Graham ' s Union brigade , with the 3rd MN & 3rd MI , " held the peach orchard until nearly dusk " ; and at " " 6 : 30 p . m . , McLaws ' Division " [ broke ] " Birney ' s line at the Peach Orchard " " . The 21st Mississippi Infantry Regiment passed through the Peach Orchard toward Bigelow ' s 9th Massachusetts Battery farther east . The 2nd NH entered the Battle of Gettysburg with 353 soldiers . In under three hours , 47 were killed , 136 wounded and 36 men went missing ; of the 24 officers , only three were not killed or wounded . Postbellum . Franklin Dullin Briscoe ' s artwork , " " Peach Orchard – Gettysburg " " , is now in the National Archives ; and the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association board approved purchase of the orchard in 1890 ( several Peach Orchard memorials were erected during the memorial association era — e . g . , 68th Pennsylvania Infantry in 1886 ) . Battlefield landscape preservation began in 1883 when peach trees were replanted in the orchard , and in 1896 a cast iron site identification marker was added near the road intersection . The orchard was deeded to the War Department in 1906 , was replanted in 1909 , and exhibited 6 " Army of the Potomac " cannon by 1912 . The land bordering the orchard to the east and south was purchased from J . Emory Bair in 1907 , and Birney Avenue of on those 2 sides was piked in 1914 . The Camp Eisenhower YCC participants replaced the orchard ' s peach trees in 1974 , the orchard ' s ID tablet by Emmor Cope was entered - documented as an historic district contributing structure in 2004 , and the orchard was replanted in April 2008 . .