Battle of New Market

The Battle of New Market took place on 15 May 1864, the scope of the Lynchburg Campaign of 1864 during the American Civil War instead. They forced the retreat of the Union troops under Major General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

In the spring of 1864 the commander of the Union army Ulysses S. Grant planned to support its main shocks by the generals George Gordon Meade against Robert E. Lee and William T. Sherman against Joseph E. Johnston several support campaigns in which Major-General Franz Sigel with 10,000 men in should march the Shenandoah valley. First and foremost, he had the task of protecting their own connections (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ), but then was ordered by Grant on his part to break the railroad connections of the Confederacy (it should include the railway and canal systems in Lynchburg (Virginia) destroy ) and Lee threaten the flank. Then moved General John C. Breckinridge together all available Confederate forces to repel Sigel's advance, even the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI ), which were, however, intended only as a reserve for its approximately 4,000 veterans.

On May 15, 1864 both met at New Market. The Union troops were north of the town, the Confederates in the South. As Sigel withdrew a battery to replenish their ammunition, the Confederates attacked in heavy rain. West of the battlefield by an arm of the Shenandoah was limited, east of a mountain range. When he had opened a gap in the Confederate lines because of the massive artillery and infantry fire, the Union troops in the center, Sigel saw the opportunity for a counter-attack of the 34th Massachusetts Regiment, which was, however, hampered by the mud - many soldiers lost in the mud off her shoes ( Field of lost shoes ). Breckinridge saw himself reluctantly compelled the. 257 cadets of the VMI, 15-21 years of age, to throw into the gap below the 24 -year-old Lieutenant Colonel Scott Shipp (put the boys in june and God forgive me for the order ) The cadets were able actually repel the attack. They made some prisoners and captured a cannon. However Sigel dodged after Strasburg (Virginia) and secured the retreat by burning the bridge over the Shenandoah from.

The winning cadet ( who complain also had 10 losses ) celebrate today the " New Market Day" victory. Sigel (essentially a political general, the Lincoln 's support of ethnic German immigrants secured ) was immediately at the urging of Halleck and Grant replaced as commander - as already several times before.

Others

The attack was the cadets inspiration for a corresponding scene in the movie The last command with John Wayne in 1959.

Sigel mentions in his account of the battle in Buel, Johnson ( ed.), " Battles and Leaders of the civil war " the attack of the cadets with no word.