151st Anniversary of the Battle of New Market

This is a picture of our unit guidon flying over our artillery camp at the 151st Anniversary of the Battle of New Market.  In a few of my earlier posts, I happened to mention the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute.  This is the battle where they earned the most fame after turning the tide of the battle and leading the Confederate force to victory.  For reenactors this is a pretty cool event because we have the ability to reenact the battle on the original battlefield.  This is because it is a state-owned battlefield.  Federal-owned battlefields we cannot have reenactments on because it is hallowed ground and no two opposing forces may fight on it.  New Market was located in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and occurred in May of 1864.  It signified the beginning of the last year of major fighting in the Shenandoah Valley as later in October of 1864, the Battle of Cedar Creek was the last big bang in the area.  At New Market in “The Field of Lost Shoes”, Union Infantry began to push back Confederate forces until the Cadets from VMI were commanded to take the field.  Once this happened, the Confederate forces rallied and began to push back the Union Infantry line.  As the infantry retreated past their own artillery, beginning to retreat, the Union artillery line held fast, many of the men dying at their guns as they were overrun.  The flag bearer for the VMI Cadets was seen standing on top of one of the limbers of the Union Artillery, waving the flag of the Corps of Cadets above the battlefield.  This is a tradition that continues to this day during the reenactment of the battle.