At the corner of the Peach Orchard, there is a monument that is dedicated to the skirmish line of the third Michigan. This location is on the far-outskirts of the Union line, under the commander of M.G. Daniel Sickles. This monument has a carved relief of two soldiers skirmishing through the fields in search of the enemy. The regiment’s assignment was to slowly weed out some of the soldiers from Kershaw’s confederate lines. This monument was dedicated on June 12, 1889.
The Third Michigan was part of the 3rd Corps, 1st Division, and within the 3rd Brigade. The diamond shape on the monument shows the symbol that they followed in the field of battle. The Corps commander was Major General Daniel Sickles. His legacy at Gettysburg is less than stellar. His thought was to extend his Corps way past the original location that his commanding general directed him to. The original position his Corps was supposed to be at was from Little Round Top/Devil’s Den to where the Pennsylvania Monument is in the present day. However, his thinking was to “gain” high ground, and he moved his Corps way out to the Emmitsburg Road near the Peach Orchard. Thus, problems arose with the lack of soldiers to extend the line and protect the Union southern line.
The regiment was deployed about one-hundred to two-hundred yards to the south, which is labeled as the blue dots between the 141th Pennsylvania and the South Carolina regiments. Prior to the battle, the regiment contained 19 officers and 267 soldiers. However, within the fighting on July 2nd afternoon, those numbers quickly diminished. As the regiment regrouped later that evening, the officers gathered the totals of the losses: at least seven soldiers were killed, another seven were missing or considered dead, three officers were wounded, along with twenty-eight soldiers.