VA -- New Market -- New Market State Historic Park -- Bushong Farm:
- Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.
- Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon
underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
- Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
- Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.145.166.7 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.
- Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]
|
[1] BUSH_990522_001.JPG
|
[2] BUSH_990522_002.JPG
|
[3] BUSH_990522_003.JPG
|
[4] BUSH_990522_004.JPG
|
[5] BUSH_990522_007.JPG
|
[6] BUSH_990522_008.JPG
|
[7] BUSH_990522_009.JPG
|
[8] BUSH_990522_011.JPG
|
[9] BUSH_990522_012.JPG
|
[10] BUSH_990522_013.JPG
|
[11] BUSH_990522_015.JPG
|
[12] BUSH_990522_016.JPG
|
[13] BUSH_990522_017.JPG
|
[14] BUSH_990522_020.JPG
|
[15] BUSH_990522_022.JPG
|
[16] BUSH_990522_025.JPG
|
[17] BUSH_990522_026.JPG
|
[18] BUSH_990522_027.JPG
|
[19] BUSH_990522_031.JPG
|
[20] BUSH_990522_034.JPG
|
[21] BUSH_990522_035.JPG
|
[22] BUSH_990522_036.JPG
|
[23] BUSH_990522_038.JPG
|
[24] BUSH_990522_040.JPG
|
[25] BUSH_990522_041.JPG
|
[26] BUSH_990522_043.JPG
|
[27] BUSH_990522_045.JPG
|
[28] BUSH_990522_046.JPG
|
[29] BUSH_990522_048.JPG
|
[30] BUSH_990522_050.JPG
|
[31] BUSH_990522_052.JPG
|
[32] BUSH_990522_054.JPG
|
[33] BUSH_990522_055.JPG
|
[34] BUSH_990522_058.JPG
|
[35] BUSH_990522_060.JPG
|
[36] BUSH_990522_061.JPG
|
[37] BUSH_990522_063.JPG
|
[38] BUSH_990522_064.JPG
|
[39] BUSH_990522_066.JPG
|
[40] BUSH_990522_068.JPG
|
[41] BUSH_990522_069.JPG
|
[42] BUSH_990522_070.JPG
|
[43] BUSH_990522_071.JPG
|
[44] BUSH_990522_072.JPG
|
[45] BUSH_990522_074.JPG
|
[46] BUSH_990522_076.JPG
|
[47] BUSH_990522_078.JPG
|
[48] BUSH_990522_079.JPG
|
[49] BUSH_990522_080.JPG
|
[50] BUSH_990522_083.JPG
|
[51] BUSH_990522_085.JPG
|
[52] BUSH_990522_087.JPG
|
[53] BUSH_990522_089.JPG
|
[54] BUSH_990522_092.JPG
|
[55] BUSH_990522_095.JPG
|
[56] BUSH_990522_098.JPG
|
[57] BUSH_990522_100.JPG
|
[58] BUSH_990522_102.JPG
|
[59] BUSH_990522_104.JPG
|
[60] BUSH_990522_106.JPG
|
[61] BUSH_990522_107.JPG
|
[62] BUSH_990522_109.JPG
|
[63] BUSH_990522_111.JPG
|
[64] BUSH_990522_113.JPG
|
[65] BUSH_990522_115.JPG
|
[66] BUSH_990522_117.JPG
|
[67] BUSH_990522_118.JPG
|
[68] BUSH_990522_120.JPG
|
[69] BUSH_990522_122.JPG
|
- AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
- 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."
- Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
- Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
- Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].