BGuthrie Photos: VA -- New Market -- New Market State Historic Park -- Bushong Farm

VA -- New Market -- New Market State Historic Park -- Bushong Farm:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BUSH_131005_008.JPG: The Battle of New Market May 15, 1864 -- 1864 Valley Campaign -- In the spring of 1864, Union Gen. Franz Sigel marched his 10,000-man army south through the Shenandoah Valley as part of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's strategy to attack the Confederacy on several fronts simultaneously. To counter this threat, Gen. John C. Breckinridge led 4,000 Confederate troops to New Market, located on the only road over Massanutten Mountain, which divides the Valley and channels troop movements. In desperate need of soldiers, Breckinridge summoned the Corps of Cadets from Virginia Military Institute. The boys marched north from Lexington to join him. On the evening of May 14, advance elements of Sigel's army reached New Market, encountering Confederate Gen. John D. Imboden's cavalry. The next morning, Breckinridge brought his full force to Shirley's Hill, two miles south of here. When the Federals pulled back, Breckinridge ordered a general advance, with the cadets in reserved. Sigel occupied a hill north of town on Jacob Bushong's farm, where for several hours fighting swirled around the house and across an orchard and wheat field muddied by torrential thunderstorms. Casualties in the Confederate center created a hole that Breckinridge reluctantly filled with the cadets. After his forces repulsed two final infantry and cavalry charges, Breckinridge ordered an attack along his entire front. The Federals retreated in good order as the cadets overran an exposed battery, capturing one cannon and many prisoners. Union losses totaled 841 killed, wounded, and missing, while the Confederates suffered 531 casualties, including 10 VMI Cadets killed and more than 40 wounded. With Sigel's army no longer an immediate threat, Breckinridge took most of his troops east to join the defense of Richmond.
2. BUSH_131005_034.JPG: Baptism of Fire VMI Cadet Casualties in the Battle of New Market While the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute comprised one of the smallest Confederate units engaged in the Battle of New Market, they paid a disproportionately high price in their baptism of fire. Nearly one in four of the cadets were either killed or wounded during the fighting, resulting in the third-highest casualty rate in Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge's army. In addition to 45 cadets who would survive their wounds, ten cadets were either killed outright or would die after the battle ended. Even before the cadets were ordered into the battle line, a single artillery shell took the lives of Cadets William Cabell, Charles Crockett, and Henry Jones. William Hugh McDowell was killed near the Bushong House, and Jacqueline "Bev" Stanard also died on the field. After saving another wounded cadet's life by applying a tourniquet during the battle, Thomas G. Jefferson was struck in the body and succumbed in the Clinedinst home in New Market on May 18, consoled by Eliza Clinedinst and Cadet Moses Ezekiel. Joseph Wheelwright, who was wounded around the same time as Cabell, Crockett, and Jones, died on June 2 at the home of a doctor in Harrisonburg. Luther Haynes also lingered, dying of his wounds in Richmond on June 15. On June 26, Alva Hartsfield suffered a fatal collapse brought on by his wounds in Petersburg. Samuel Atwill, though slightly wounded in the calf, died of lockjaw on July 20, the last fatal casualty of the Battle of New Market.
3. BUSH_131005_053.JPG: The Bushong Farm Caught in the Crossfire On June 22, 1791, Henry Bushong patented a 260-acre tract in Shenandoah County that would be home for several generations of his descendants. Henry's son, Jacob married Sarah Strickler in 1818. They took up residence in a four-room log house and began a family that would grow to include four boys and two girls. In 1825 Jacob Bushong built this vernacular Federal-style home. An 1852 expansion added double porches attached on the north end to provide extra room for the growing family. The Bushongs raised wheat, oats, cattle, hogs, and horses. Wheelwright and blacksmith shops provided farm implements for the Bushongs and other area families. The family worked alongside three African American slaves on the property -- an unmarried man, a woman named Mary, and a young boy, Israel. On May 15, 1864 seven family members took refuge in their sturdy cellar as the Battle of New Market raged across their farm. Peering through the windows, they saw VMI cadets pass on the east and west sides of the house as they marched to join the Confederate battle line. After the battle the house and barn, like most buildings in and around New Market, served as a hospital.. George R. Collins: In the early 1940s the Bushong family sold the farm to Mr. and Mrs. Everette Croxton, who in turn sold it in 1944 to George Randall Collins, VMI Class of 1911. At his death in 1964, Mr. Collins bequeathed the Bushong Farm and a $3 million operating endowment to VMI "to be used as a trust to perpetuate and maintain as a Memorial of the Battle of New Market."
4. BUSH_131005_157.JPG: "Good-bye, Lieutenant, I am killed." Woodson's Missouri Cavalry in the Battle of New Market In front of you is one of only two monuments erected by veterans of the battle. This one was placed by members of Woodson's Company of Missouri Cavalry. The unit followed perhaps the strangest path to this field of conflict. Captured in Mississippi in 1862, the men were exchanged at City Point, Virginia a year later. In Richmond, some 70 officers and men were designated as Co. A, 1st Missouri Cavalry under the command of twenty-one-year-old Capt. Charles H. Woodson. The Missourians were transferred to the Valley District and attached to the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry Regiment. Lack of horses meant the "mounted" troops would fight on foot. During the battle, the Missouri men faced heavy fire from Capt. Albert von Kleiser's 30th New York artillery battery. Lieutenant Ed Scott recalled: "We were now within pistol shot of the battery and just as I fired the last shot from my revolver at a canoneer, Sgt. Day came up to me pale and staggering with the blood flowing from his breast and back, and said as he gave me his hand, ‘Lt., I am almost gone, please help me off.' Just then I saw Lt. Jones, my bosom friend and companion fall full length beside me…I was struck at the same time in the arm with a fragment of shell... I assisted Will Day a few steps to the rear and laid him down. He would soon be dead. I spoke but he answered not. I placed my mouth close to his ear and begged him to call upon our Heavenly Father for the pardon of his sins…Will was a wild but a brave and generous boy. Just as I was lowering him Tommy Cave came to me with blood pouring from his neck and said, ‘Good-bye, Lt., I am killed.' I took his hand and eased him to the ground. These were the last words he spoke." In all, four soldiers were killed and about 35 were wounded, including Woodson. Two veterans of the company, J.H. Dwyer and W.R. Fallis, commissioned a limestone marker to the unit's position on the Bushong farm. A local Confederate veteran, Major Christian Shirley, offered a load of sand, and Jacob Bushong provided the rock. In early May of 1905, the two Missourians, assisted by Shirley and L.M. Henkel, erected the monument, which reads thus: This rustic pile The simple tale will tell: It marks the spot Where Woodson's heroes fell. Love and War: For Missourians J.H. Dwyer and W.R. Fallis, service in Virginia brought more than battle; it also brought romance, as reported in the May 25, 1905 edition of the Shenandoah Valley newspaper: Not many months after the battle of New Market, Mr. Dwyer married Miss Ada Sprinkle, a maiden of 15 or 16 years, who had cared for him when wounded whilst in Harrisonburg. In 1867, Mr. Fallis married Miss Sallie Gay, of Harrisonburg, a war sweetheart, where she died in 1882. In August, 1885 he married Miss Mattie O. Giles, of Nelson County, where they resided for some time. Mr. Fallis jocularly remarked that man may escape the perils of battle, but never the wiles of Cupid. In his case, he married two ladies with red hair, when he had vowed he never would, and one of them declared most emphatically she would never marry a widower, but he got the best of all, and they were Virginians.
5. BUSH_131005_166.JPG: This rustic pile The simple tale will tell: It marks the spot Where Woodson's Heroes fell.
6. BUSH_131005_186.JPG: Heroism in Defeat Captain Henry A. DuPont and Sergeant James M. Burns The main Union line of battle extended from here for one-half mile to the Valley Turnpike, now U.S. 11. Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, the Union force exchanged musket and cannon fire with the Confederates, who had advanced over a mile north from Shirley's Hill to a fence along Jacob Bushong's orchard. About 3 PM, Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge sensed that the tide of battle had turned. He ordered an advance, with the cadets from VMI in the center. As the Confederate charge swept across the muddy wheat field, the cadets overwhelmed the exposed position of Capt. Alfred von Keiser's 30th Battery of New York Artillery. With many of his battery's horses dead, von Kleiser abandoned two of his guns. The exuberant cadets captured one of them. The Confederate charge forced the Union commander, Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, to order a retreat. At this moment, Battery B, 5th U.S. Artillery, under the command of Capt. Henry DuPont, arrived on the field at Rude's Hill, two miles northeast of the Bushong Farm. Acting on his own initiative, DuPont deployed his battery of six 3-inch ordnance rifles in three sections of two guns each. As he fired and withdrew, leapfrogging his guns, he slowed the Confederate advance long enough for Sigel to withdraw the rest of his army north to safety. DuPont served in the Union Army for the rest of the war, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Cedar Creek. In June, 1864 he reluctantly carried out orders to shell and burn the Virginia Military Institute. Fifty years later, as a United States Senator from Delaware, DuPont sponsored legislation to compensate VMI for the damage. The Senate majority leader was Thomas Staples Martin of Virginia, who fought as a VMI cadet at New Market. Courage Under Fire: Sgt. James M. Burns of the 1st West Virginia Infantry was awarded the Army's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Union retreat at New Market. His citation reads: "Under a heavy fire of musketry, rallied a few men to the support of the colors, in danger of capture, and bore them to a place of safety. On of his comrades having been severely wounded in the effort, Sgt. Burns went back a hundred yards in the face of enemy's fire and carried the wounded man from the field." The medal (on the far left in the picture below) was awarded in 1896, as Burns, now a major, neared the end of three decades of service in the U.S. Army.
7. BUSH_131005_196.JPG: The Battle of New Market was fought here Sunday morning, May 15, 1864. The Confederates under Gen. J. C. Breckinridge were victorious over the Federals under Gen. Franz Sigel. The decisive incident of the battle was the heroic capture of the Federal battery by the V.M.I. cadets.
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Wikipedia Description: Battle of New Market
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of New Market was a battle fought on May 15, 1864, in Virginia during Valley Campaigns of 1864 in the American Civil War. Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) fought alongside the Confederate Army and forced Union General Franz Sigel and his army out of the Shenandoah Valley.

Background:

In the spring of 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant set in motion a grand strategy designed to press the Confederacy into submission. "My primary mission," reasoned Grant, "is to ... bring pressure to bear on the Confederacy so no longer could it take advantage of interior lines." Control of the strategically important and agriculturally rich Shenandoah Valley was a key element in General Grant's plans. While he confronted General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the eastern part of the state, Grant ordered Major General Franz Sigel's army of 10,000 to secure the Valley and threaten Lee's flank, starting the Valley Campaigns of 1864.

Receiving word that the Union Army had entered the Valley, Confederate General John C. Breckinridge pulled together all available forces to repulse the latest threat. The VMI Cadet Corps, over half of whom were first year students, or "Rats", were called to join Breckinridge and his army of 4,500 veterans. The cadets marched 80 miles in four days to meet up with General Breckinridge's Confederate force. The cadets were intended to be a reserve and employed in battle only under the most dire circumstances. The two armies met at New Market on May 15, 1864. "I shall advance on him", the aggressive Breckinridge declared. "We can attack and whip them here and we will do it!" As the general rode by the cadets he shouted, "Gentlemen, I trust I will not need your services today; but if I do, I know you will do your duty."

Battle:

In drenching rain, Union artillery located in town fired upon the Confederate line as it began its advance from the south. After brushing aside Union skirmishers located west of town, the rebel infantry line came within rifle range of Federals positioned along a ridge north of the farm owned by Jacob and Sara Bushong.

Cadet John Howard saw a badly wounded Confederate officer lying on his side waving his sword to inspire the gray line forward. "Another shell exploded and he was cut down for a second time ... What effect that waving sword had on anyone else, I do not know, but I know there was no giving back as we passed forward through the storm."

"The bursting of shells about us was incessant," recalled cadet Gideon Davenport, "One of these passing directly through our colors ... about thus time we passed a group of wounded soldiers who cheered us, but a shell, intended for us, burst in their midst, and they fell silent. Suddenly there was a crack in our front—a gap appeared in our ranks, and First Sergeant Cabell, Privates Wheelwright, Crockett, and Jones fell dead, and others were wounded. The opening was immediately closed, and the line went forward in the best of order. Nothing could have been finer done." Still in the reserve line, the cadets had to part as they marched around the Bushong farmhouse; companies A and B to the right, companies C and D to the left.

The front rank of the Confederate line paused at the split rail fence separating Jacob Bushong's orchard and wheatfield. Receiving massed fire from the Federal muskets and artillery, the right flank of the 51st Virginia Infantry regiment, the 30th Virginia, and the left flank of the 62nd Virginia melted away. Noting the confusion in the Confederate line, Sigel ordered an attack. Breckenridge knew he must quickly fill the 350-foot gap in the center of his line or abandon the field. One of his staff suggested sending in the untried cadets. "I will not do it," Breckinridge replied. "General, you have no choice," responded the desperate officer. "Put the boys in," Breckinridge ordered, "and may God forgive me for the order ..."

The 257 VMI cadets, aged 15 to 21, stepped into the gap along the fence just as the 34th Massachusetts started its attack. Along the orchard fence line, cadet John Howard recalled, "It was an ordinary rail fence, about four feet high but as I surmounted to topmost rail it felt at least ten feet up in the air and the subject of hostile aim. But in clearing this obstruction I was leaving all thought of individuality behind," The cadets met the Union charge and turned it back. Now the entire Confederate line swept forward over the rain-soaked and recently plowed wheatfield. This field would later be dubbed the "Field of Lost Shoes" by the cadets because of the many pieces of footwear that were pulled off the cadet's feet by the suction of the mud as the Corps charged forward.

Meanwhile Sigel's infantry lurched forward awkwardly and ineffectively, then fell back across the blood-drenched mud. Anticipating the results of his failed charge, Sigel began to withdraw his artillery. Only a few yards separated the armies when the Federal line broke and the Confederates swept through. The VMI cadets led the charge, capturing a cannon and many men from the 34th Massachusetts. Cadet O. P. Evans climbed atop the gun and victoriously waved the Institute Flag. General Breckinridge rode by, doffed his hat, and shouted "Well done!"

General Sigel staged a rapid retreat northward to Strasburg, leaving the field and the Valley to General Breckinridge's army and the exuberant VMI cadets.

VMI Casualties:

... The New Market Day ceremony is an annual observance held at VMI in front of the monument "Virginia Mourning Her Dead", a memorial to the New Market Corps. The names of all of the cadets in the Corps of 1864 are inscribed on the monument, and six of the ten cadets who died are buried at this site.

The ceremony features the roll call of the names of the cadets who lost their lives at New Market, a custom that began in 1887. The name of each cadet who died is called, and a representative from the same company in today's Corps answers, "Died on the Field of Honor, Sir."
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