Battle of New Market

Not to be confused with Battle of New Market Heights.

Battle of New Market
Part of the American Civil War

"Cadets at New Market"
DateMay 15, 1864 (1864-05-15)
Location
Shenandoah County, Virginia
38°39′43″N 78°40′14″W / 38.66194°N 78.67056°W / 38.66194; -78.67056
Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
United States United States Confederate States of America Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Franz Sigel John C. Breckinridge
Strength
6,275[1] 4,087[2]
Casualties and losses
96 killed
520 wounded
225 captured/missing
43 killed
474 wounded
3 captured/missing

The Battle of New Market was fought on May 15, 1864, in Virginia during the Valley Campaigns of 1864 in the American Civil War. A makeshift Confederate army of 4,100 men defeated the larger Army of the Shenandoah under Major General Franz Sigel, delaying the capture of Staunton by several weeks.

The battle is primarily remembered today for being the only time in American history a school's student body was used as an organized combat unit.[3] During the battle Confederate general John C. Breckinridge ordered cadets from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), some of them child soldiers no older than 15, to join an attack on the Union lines.[4][5] The event has gone on to become central to many of the institute's myths and traditions.

  1. ^ Davis, p. 190.
  2. ^ Davis, p. 192.
  3. ^ "Battle of New Market". The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  4. ^ P.W. Singer. "The Enablers of War: Casual Factors behind the Child Soldier Phenomenon" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Child soldiers even fought in our own civil war, most notably when a unit of 247 Virginia Military Institute cadets fought with the Confederate Army in the battle of New Market (1864).
  5. ^ "America's Racial Awakening Forces Virginia Military Institute To Confront Its Past – And Future". Time. May 27, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2021. In May 1864, 257 cadets, some as young as 15, marched 80 miles to the Battle of New Market, Va., in what is believed to be the only time in U.S. history a college's student body has fought as a combat unit. Forty-five were wounded and 10 died.