Battle of New Market
| date | May 15, 1864 |
|---|---|
| place | Shenandoah County, Virginia |
| output | Confederate victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Major General
Franz Sigel |
Major General
John C. Breckinridge |
| Troop strength | |
|
6,275
|
4,090
|
| losses | |
|
840
|
540
|
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
The Battle of New Market took place on May 15, 1864 as part of the Lynchburg Campaign of 1864 during the American Civil War . They forced the withdrawal of the Union troops under Major General Franz Sigel from the Shenandoah Valley .
prehistory
In the spring of 1864, the Commander in Chief of the Union Army Ulysses S. Grant planned several support campaigns in support of his main attacks by Generals George Gordon Meade against Robert E. Lee and William T. Sherman against Joseph E. Johnston , in which Major General Franz Sigel with 9,000 men in should march the Shenandoah Valley. His primary task was to protect his own connections ( Baltimore and Ohio Railways ), but then received the order from Grant to cut off the Confederate railroad connections (he was supposed to destroy the railroad and canal systems at Lynchburg ) and Threaten Lee in the flank. Thereupon General John C. Breckinridge pulled together all available Confederate troops to repel Sigel's advance, even the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), which were only intended as a reserve for his approximately 4,000 veterans.
The battle
On May 15, 1864, they met at New Market. The Union troops stood north of the place, the Confederates in the south. When Sigel withdrew a battery to replenish its ammunition, the Confederates attacked in heavy rain. To the west the battlefield was bounded by an arm of the Shenandoah, to the east by a mountain range. When a gap opened up in the center of the Confederate lines due to the massive artillery and infantry fire of the Union troops, Sigel saw the opportunity for a counterattack by the 34th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which was hampered by the quagmire - many soldiers lost theirs in the mud Shoes ( Field of lost shoes ). Breckinridge was reluctantly compelled to throw the 257 cadets of the VMI between the ages of 15 and 21 under the 24-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Scott Shipp into the void ( Put the boys in and may God forgive me for the order ). The attack was repulsed, and the cadets suffered heavy losses when they captured an artillery position. They took some prisoners and captured a cannon . Sigel, however, already avoided Strasburg and secured the retreat by burning the bridge over the Shenandoah.
consequences
The victorious cadets (who also had 10 dead and 45 wounded) still honor the fallen and their victims on "New Market Day". Sigel (essentially a political general who secured Lincoln the support of immigrants of German origin) was promptly replaced as commander on May 19, 1864 at the urging of Halleck, who had previously clashed with and who did not have a high opinion of his military capabilities, and Grant on May 19, 1864 . He was succeeded by Major General David Hunter.
Others
The attack by the cadets was the inspiration for a corresponding scene in the 1959 film The Last Command with John Wayne .
In his report on the Battle of Buel, Johnson (ed.) "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War", Sigel does not mention the attack by the Cadets at all.
literature
- William C. Davis: The Battle of New Market. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Penn. 1993, ISBN 0-8117-0576-5 .
- John D. Imboden : The Battle of New Market, in: Buel Johnson, Battles and Leaders of the civil war, Volume 4, The Century Co., 1888, pp. 480-486
- Franz Sigel: Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley, in: Buel, Johnson, Battles and Leaders of the civil war, Volume 4, pp. 487-491
Movie
- Sean NcNamara: “Field of the lost shoes” 2014, shows the battle from the perspective of seven cadets. German: "North & South - The Battle of New Market"
Web links
- Ceremony at the VMI
- New Market Battlefield website of the VMI
- Official Records, report by Sigel and Imboden from Buel / Johnson, Karte u. a.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Troop strength. National Park Service, April 13, 2015, accessed March 24, 2020 (American Battlefield Protection Program).
- ↑ a b losses. National Park Service, April 13, 2015, accessed March 24, 2020 (American Battlefield Protection Program).
- ↑ a b Number of cadets. VMI Archives, accessed March 24, 2020 (Virginia Military Institute).
- ↑ Number and losses of the cadets. Ohio State University, accessed March 24, 2020 (According to Buel, Johnson, Battles and Leaders, Volume 4, p. 491, 8 dead, 46 wounded out of a total of 225 cadets.).
- ↑ Official Records, Series 1, Volume 37, Part 1, p.492