Qualla: Battle of New Market https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of New Market https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market Battle of New Market: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market/ Photo credit Eixo at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Every year at the Virginia Military Institute, a roll call echoes across the parade ground. An officer reads the name of a cadet who died at New Market. A representative from the same company in the modern Corps answers: "Died on the Field of Honor, Sir." A three-volley salute follows, then Taps. The ceremony has been held since 1887, but the battle it commemorates happened on a single rain-soaked afternoon in May 1864, when 247 cadets averaging eighteen years of age, some as young as fifteen, marched into Union fire in the Shenandoah Valley and helped turn the tide of the only engagement in American history where a school's student body fought as an organized military unit.

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Image: Eixo at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/dqb5-battle-of-new-market-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of New Market: Grant's Grand Design Unravels https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market/ Photo credit henristosch, CC BY-SA 2.0 de. In the spring of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant set a multi-front strategy in motion to crush the Confederacy. Control of the Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket that fed Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, was critical. Grant ordered Major General Franz Sigel to advance with rough...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/dqb5-battle-of-new-market-grants-grand-design-unravels.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of New Market: Into the Orchard https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market/ Photo credit Muhranoff, CC BY-SA 4.0. Contact came south of New Market on the morning of May 15. Breckinridge deployed his brigades along the Valley Turnpike, keeping the cadets in reserve. He launched his infantry attack near noon, slowly pushing the Union line off Manor's Hill and northward toward Bushong's Hill. B...

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Image: Muhranoff | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/dqb5-battle-of-new-market-into-the-orchard.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of New Market: The Field of Lost Shoes https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market/ Photo credit Skye Marthaler, CC BY-SA 3.0. Shortly after 3:00 p.m., Breckinridge ordered the full advance. As the Confederate line crossed a muddy field near Bushong's orchard, the saturated ground sucked the shoes off several VMI cadets, who pressed forward in stocking feet. The field would be known forever after as the ...

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Image: Skye Marthaler | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/dqb5-battle-of-new-market-the-field-of-lost-shoes.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of New Market: Harvest and Aftermath https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market/ Photo credit Wilson44691, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Confederate victory had immediate strategic consequences. The Shenandoah Valley's crops were saved for Lee's army, and his supply lines to western Virginia remained intact. Virginia newspapers compared Breckinridge to Stonewall Jackson. An enraged Grant replaced Sigel with Ge...

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Image: Wilson44691 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/dqb5-battle-of-new-market-harvest-and-aftermath.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of New Market: Memory Cast in Bronze https://qualla.com/battle-of-new-market/ Photo credit Muhranoff, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today, 300 acres of the battlefield are preserved as the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park. At VMI, the monument Virginia Mourning Her Dead stands at the center of the New Market Day ceremony. It was sculpted by Moses Ezekiel, VMI Class of 1866, who fought at New Marke...

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Image: Muhranoff | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/5/battle-of-new-market-wp/dqb5-battle-of-new-market-memory-cast-in-bronze.mp3 0:06 6 full