CS Kershaw SC Brigade
Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Brigadier General Joseph B. Kershaw’s South Carolina Brigade of McLaw’s Division, ordered on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, to attack the Union battle line north and east of the Rose Farm, 100 yards eastward, crossed the Emmitsburg Road in this area.....
The Story
On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Brigadier General Joseph B. Kershaw led his South Carolina brigade of McLaws' Division across the Emmitsburg Road toward the Union line near the Rose Farm. The assault carried into some of the fiercest fighting of the second day, on ground remembered for the Peach Orchard and the Wheatfield. This marker fixes the brigade's line of advance.
Why it matters
Kershaw's attack was part of Longstreet's massive second-day assault that came close to breaking the Union left at Gettysburg.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the summer of 1863, the Civil War had ground on for more than two years, and the fighting had come north into Pennsylvania. The rolling farmland around the town of Gettysburg — fields of ripening wheat, orchards, and stone-fenced pastures — was ordinary country that was about to become one of the most fought-over ground in American history.
The farms here belonged to families who worked the soil, not soldiers. Names like the Rose Farm marked out the everyday geography of a working landscape. When two great armies converged, those quiet field boundaries and farm lanes suddenly became military landmarks, described in orders and remembered in monuments for generations afterward.
This was the second day of a three-day battle, and by the afternoon the outcome was still very much in doubt. Both sides were pouring men into a struggle for the high ground and the fields between the lines.
People & events
On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Brigadier General Joseph B. Kershaw led his South Carolina brigade forward as part of a larger Confederate division. The order was to attack the Union battle line drawn up north and east of the Rose Farm, and the advance carried his men across the Emmitsburg Road near this spot.
What followed was some of the most desperate fighting of the entire battle. This corner of the field — remembered for its peach orchard and its wheatfield — changed hands in waves of assault and counterassault. Kershaw's brigade pressed into a storm of musketry and artillery, closing with a Union line that did not give way easily.
The men who crossed this ground were farmers, clerks, and laborers from South Carolina, far from home. The marker fixes the line of their advance — a way of saying, precisely here, they came on.
Its place in the American story
Kershaw's attack was one piece of a massive Confederate assault against the Union left on the battle's second day. Had that assault fully succeeded, it might have broken the Union position and changed the course of the battle — and perhaps the war.
Gettysburg is often remembered as the turning point of the Civil War, the high-water mark of the Confederacy's push into the North. The fighting near the Rose Farm, the wheatfield, and the peach orchard was central to why that second day mattered so much. The Union line bent here but held.
Monuments like this one, scattered across the battlefield, do something remarkable: they mark not just where armies were, but where individual brigades stepped, fought, and fell. They turn a sweeping national story into ground you can stand on.
If you visit
Stand here and look toward the open ground the brigade crossed. What strikes most visitors is how exposed it is — gently rolling farmland with little cover, the kind of terrain that made a charge both possible and terribly costly.
The Gettysburg battlefield is unusually well preserved, and this area rewards slow travel. Trace the line of the Emmitsburg Road, imagine the fields choked with smoke, and let the quiet of the farmland today contrast with what happened here on a July afternoon.
If you're building a driving tour of the second day's fighting, this marker fits naturally alongside the peach orchard and wheatfield areas. Give yourself time to walk a little; the ground tells the story better than any road can.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Gettysburg Museum1.6 mi away
- Lincoln Train Museum1.7 mi away · 426 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA
- Ford Motor Company Fund Education Center1.7 mi away
- Gettysburg Heritage Center1.7 mi away · 297 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA
- Gettysburg Diorama & History Center1.8 mi away · 241 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA
- Battlefield Military Museum2.0 mi away
Attractions
- John Eisenhower Bridge0.9 mi away · Waterworks Road
- Sachs Covered Bridge1.3 mi away
- Sachs Covered Bridge1.3 mi away · Waterworks Road, Gettysburg, PA
Food & drink
- Reid's Winery Cider House2.2 mi away · 400 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Hong Kong2.3 mi away
- Tania's Mexican Restaurant2.3 mi away
- Garryowen Irish Pub2.4 mi away · 126 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Ragged Edge Coffee House2.4 mi away · 110 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Jasper's Juice Works2.4 mi away · 110 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA
Places to stay
- Best Western1.7 mi away · 301 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA
- Quality Inn Gettysburg Battlefield1.8 mi away · 380 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA
- Colton Motel1.8 mi away · 232 Steinwehr Avenue, Gettysburg, PA
- Comfort Suites1.9 mi away · 945 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, PA
- Inn at Cemetery Hill2.0 mi away · 613 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA
- 1863 Inn of Gettysburg2.1 mi away · 516 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related people
- · Joseph B. Kershaw
Related events
- · Battle of Gettysburg
Themes & tags
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