children going to the front. Rally and fol-
low those children!’”
Union Major Lang conceded, “I never
witnessed a more gallant advance and final
charge than was given by those brave boys
on that field. They fought like veterans, nor
did the dropping of their comrades by the
ruthless bullets deter them from their mis-
sion.” Cadet Wise remembered the moment
forever. “The order was given to the cadets
to advance upon the enemy, and they
moved promptly and most spiritedly,” he
said, “driving the enemy in their immediate
front from the field, capturing guns and
prisoners.” With the initiative in their favor,
Breckinridge’s men swept forward again,
driving the deflated Federals from the field
in utter confusion. An officer in the 12th
West Virginia recalled, “It seemed the very
gates of pandemonium had opened up.”
Sigel mounted a belated counterattack,
but the Confederates drove off Stahel’s
cavalry and smashed in a frontal assault
by the 34th Massachusetts, 1st West Vir-
ginia, and 54th Pennsylvania. The Massa-
chusetts troops suffered the most, losing
half their number in a matter of moments;
even their canine mascots were cut down
in the charge. The VMI cadets swarmed
over the 30th New York Artillery, driving
it from the field and capturing a gun. Color
bearer O.P. Evans straddled the cannon
and exultantly waved the Corps’ white
battle flag.
The pursuit continued for several miles
to the Shenandoah River, where Sigel’s rear
guard burned the bridge across the swollen
stream at Mount Jackson. By the time the
sound of gunfire died away at 7 PM, almost
1,400 men were casualties. Federal losses
totaled 762; the Confederates lost about- The toll was especially large among
the VMI cadets. Five were dead on the bat-
tlefield: William Cabell, Charles Crockett,
Henry Jones, William McDowell, and Jack
Stanard. Five others—Samuel Atwill,
Luther Haynes, Thomas G. Jefferson,
Joseph Wheelwright, and Alva Harts-
field—would die later of their wounds.
Another 47 cadets were wounded—nearly
one-fourth of the entire number who took
part in the battle.
Ulysses S. Grant, stymied by his own
troubles at Spotsylvania, bombarded Gen-
eral-in-Chief Henry Halleck in Washing-
ton. “Cannot General Sigel go up to
Shenandoah Valley to Staunton?” he
wired. Halleck immediately wired back
that Sigel, far from advancing, was
“already in full retreat. If you expect any-
thing from him you will be mistaken. He
will do nothing but run. He never did any-
thing else.” A furious Grant relieved the
German of command on May 21.
The Battle of New Market saved the
Shenandoah Valley for the Confederacyfor the time being. More than that, it
immediately entered into myth. The
churned up wheat field across which the
VMI cadets charged became immortalized
as “the Field of Lost Shoes,” since many of
the boy-soldiers’ shoes were sucked from
their feet by the knee-deep mud. Each year
on the anniversary of the battle, the entire
Cadet Corps musters in while the names
of the dead at New Market are read off in
turn. As the names are called, a represen-
tative of their company steps forward and
reports simply: “Dead on the field of
honor, Sir.”Map © 2013 Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MNABOVE: The battlefield at New Market was a box-like peninsula defined by Shirley’s Hill on the south,
Bushong’s Hill on the north, the Shenandoah River on the west, and Smith’s Creek on the east. Heavy rains
had made the creeks impassable, further constricting movement. OPPOSITE: VMI cadets fire into the Union
troops with parade-ground precision. A Federal officer conceded that the mostly teenaged cadets “fought
like veterans.”CWQ-Sum16 New Market_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:18 PM Page 81