New Market, VA

In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln put Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in command of all U. S. Forces. Grant ordered simultaneous movements against the Confederate armies in northern Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, and the Shenandoah Valley. The Valley Campaign opened with the battle of New Market on May 14. Major General John C. Breckinridge was so outnumbered that he called cadets from the Virginia Military Institute into battle. He launched his attack down Shirley’s Hill and into the fire of Major General Franz Sigel’s cannons. Captain Henry A. du Pont protected the retreating Federals with fire from well-positioned artillery. Years later as a United States senator, he secured an appropriation that restored the VMI buildings destroyed during the war.

The Conservation Fund and its partners made possible the addition of 24 acres on Shirley’s Hill to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park. It is now in the VMI New Market Battlefield Park and Hall of Valor.