After Union General Franz Sigel moved into the Shenandoah Valley
in the spring of 1864, Confederate forces fell back to New Market.
On May 15, Confederate General John C. Breckinridge ordered an attack.
A
s the Civil War continued in the spring of 1864, a Shenandoah Valley
resident lamented, “Our prospects look gloomy, very gloomy.” Those
prospects dimmed even further when the relentless new Union general
in chief, Ulysses S. Grant, orchestrated a concerted scheme of simulta-
neous advances. “My primary mission,” Grant declared, “is to bring
pressure to bear on the Confederacy so no longer [can] it take advantage of inte-
rior lines.” Grant focused on the key Southern cities of Atlanta and Richmond.
While Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman drove into Georgia, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel
Banks would advance into Louisiana and southern Arkansas. Meanwhile, Maj.
Gen. George G. Meade would lead the Army of the Potomac against its old neme-
sis, Robert E. Lee, in Virginia.CWQ-Sum16 New Market_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:17 PM Page 75