Gettysburg's Peach Orchard Quotes

“The length of Sickles’s line stretched Longstreet’s 14,500 infantrymen across a front of roughly one and a quarter mile. As a result, Longstreet settled for an attacking depth of two brigades. While this depth gave Longstreet’s attack some power, there was no reserve to exploit any potential success.”
― James A. Hessler, Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road

“In hindsight, some have criticized Longstreet for obeying his orders, while others have condemned Sickles for taking great liberties with his.12”
― James A. Hessler, Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road

“Morgan considered Sickles’s forward line as “a good one of itself,” although both flanks were unprotected and “there can be no valid excuse for precipitating a battle in front of the general line.”
― James A. Hessler, Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road

“Sickles did not visit Little Round Top on the morning of July 2, and failed to assess its strengths and weaknesses. With his attention focused to the west and along the Emmitsburg Road, Sickles failed to consider opportunities or foresee contingencies that existed on other portions of the field.”
― James A. Hessler, Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road

“Whether or not Sickles violated orders intentionally, misunderstood them, or took too much discretion in executing them, remains an issue that Civil War historians have debated since 1863.”
― James A. Hessler, Gettysburg's Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the "Commanding Ground" Along the Emmitsburg Road