Gettysburg's Peach Orchard with James Hessler

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I am very excited to welcome James Hessler to The Rogue Historian. Jim has been a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park since 2003. He has authored or co-authored three books on the Gettysburg campaign: Sickles at Gettysburg (2009), Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg (2015 - co-authored with Wayne Motts with cartography by Steven Stanley), and Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard (2019 - co-authored with Britt C. Isenberg), which we will be discussing on the show. Jim’s work has received several distinguished book awards.

Jim currently co-hosts the popular Battle of Gettysburg podcast. He has been a guest on Travel Channel, NPR, PCN-TV, Breitbart News, Civil War Radio, and Gettysburg Daily. He was one of the primary content designers for the American Battlefield Trust’s mobile Gettysburg application. Jim has written several articles for national publications and is a frequent speaker at Civil War Round Tables nationwide.

I’ve got to be honest…whenever I go to the battlefield, the Peach Orchard, along with the Wheat-field and Devil’s Den, continue to confuse me. Jim helps clear things up a lot. We discuss:

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  • The position of the Union army III Corps

  • The infamous “moving forward” of the III Corps

  • The colorful Dan E. Sickles

  • Sickles’s postwar battle to redeem himself and the politics involved

  • James Longstreet and the Rebel I Corps - did he drag his feet?

  • Cory Pfarr’s new book and the resurrection of James Longstreet.

  • The film Gettysburg and how it helped Longstreet’s rep.

  • The importance of seeing this stuff for yourself (maps and books can only do so much…)

  • Savas Beatie Publishing and the upcoming publication of the Bachelder Papers

We have been working to make this happen for a while now so I am really happy to talk some of these things out. The Peach Orchard at Gettysburg is an excellent book and if you keen on military history and especially Gettysburg micro-histories then you should pick it up for sure. And make sure to listen to James’s podcast…it’s definitely in my rotation! AND…don’t forget to subscribe to The Rogue Historian Podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite app so you never ever ever ever miss a show. That would be dumb.

With compliments,

Keith

The Rogue HistorianKeith HarrisBattle of Gettysburg, The Peach Orchard at Gettysburg, Gettysburg, James Hessler, James Longstreet, Dan Sickles, Army of the Potomac, Civil War, Army of Northern Virginia, CSA, American Civil War, 1863, battlefield, GNMP, NPS2 Comments