REBEL VICTORIESThe failures of Sigel and Butler not only
allowed Breckinridge and Beauregard
to reinforce Lee, they also gave the
Confederates another military advantage.PETERSBURG DEFENSES
As a result of Butler’s abortive raid on
Petersburg, Beauregard began strengthening
that city’s defenses, just in time to parry
General Grant’s initial assaults on it the
following week 260–63 ❯❯.A NEW VALLEY CAMPAIGN
Another Shenandoah Valley campaign began in
June after a raid by Union General David Hunter,
in which he burned the Virginia Military Institute,
the “hornet’s nest,” in retaliation for New Market.
Lee sent General Jubal Early to confront Hunter,
leading to a summer of battles culminating in
Sheridan’s victory over Early 268–69 ❯❯.including a reserve of 247 soaked and
shivering cadets from the Virginia
Military Institute, the “West Point of
the South,” who had arrived after
marching 70 miles (112km) in four
days from their Lexington school.
Lee, accustomed to worse
odds, had merely wished
Breckinridge luck: “I
trust you will drive
the enemy back.”
Sigel’s failure
In the event, many of
Sigel’s men were still
far down the Valley
Turnpike, the only
macadamized road in
a sea of rain-churned
muddy lanes. As the
fighting surged back
and forth over the
pastures and knolls
outside the town, the
Union commander
could only place
what troops he did
have along a ridge
overlooking the fields
and orchards of a farm belonging to the
local Bushong family. There he also
positioned 18 of his guns.
Breckinridge, who at Shiloh and
Chickamauga had proved a remarkably
fine soldier, led a Confederate assault that
advanced up those boggy slopes. But as
rain lashed the fields and the Union
guns raked the attacking troops, a
dangerous gap appeared in the Southern
ranks. Before the Northern soldiers could
seize the opportunity, Breckinridge
called reluctantly for the cadets—”Put the
boys in, and may God forgive me for the
order”—to move up and plug the hole.
Dressed as if on parade, the lines of
cadets crossed a plowed field that rain
had made such a quagmire they lost
their shoes in the mud. Passing through
a field of green wheat, some of the
youths were torn to pieces by canister
(artillery shot used at close quarters).
Continuing onward, their comrades
wavered only when Union riflemen
began piling volleys into them; many
of them fell, but the remainder pressed
forward and, sinking to their knees,
reached their assigned place.
After a weak Union counterattack
turned into a shambles, Sigel’s
artillerymen began limbering up their
guns. The cadets then sprang
to their feet and swept up
the hill. A Union officer
remembered it as the most
“sublime” sight he ever
witnessed in the war. The rest
of the Confederate line rose in
response and stormed the
ridge, routing Sigel’s men,
who retreated pell-mell
down the Valley Turnpike,
not stopping for a day
and a night. With them
went Grant’s hopes for
a Shenandoah Valley
offensive. Lee’s flank was
secured, and Breckinridge
was able to march his small
force east to reinforce the
Army of Northern Virginia.
Nearly a quarter of the
Southern cadets had been
killed or wounded. The rest
returned to Lexington as conquering
heroes. “We were still young in the
ghastly game,” one would recall, “but
we proved apt scholars.”AFTER
Virginia Military Institute cadet
Benjamin A. Colonna was one of the cadets who fought
at New Market. He is depicted on the field over which
the cadets charged. Colonna survived the war as a
captain in the Confederate Army.Cadet’s medal
After the war, Virginia presented
bronze medals to each of the cadets
who fought at New Market—or if
killed or mortally wounded in action,
to the cadet’s next of kin.“A blanket would have covered
the three. They were awfully
mangled by the canister.”
CADET JOHN S. WISE, DESCRIBING HIS COMRADES KILLED AT NEW MARKET