Call out the Cadets

Book excerpt: The Civil War historian recounts a significant yet smaller battle in the Shenandoah Valley—showing how it changed the war and the lives of those present. The battle of New Market came at a crucial moment in the Union’s offensive movements. It would also be the last major Confederate victory in the Shenandoah Valley. The outcome altered campaign plans across the North and South, while the bloody battle changed the lives of those who witnessed or fought it. In the spring of 1864, Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel prepared to lead a new invasion into the Valley. Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge scrambled to organize a defense. Young cadets from the Virginia Military Institute were called to the battle lines just days after leaving their studies. When the opposing divisions clashed on May 15th, 1864, local civilians watched as the combat unfold in their streets and churchyards and aided the fallen. In Call Out the Cadets, Sarah Kay Bierle traces the history of this battle, covering its military aspects and shedding light on the lives it forever changed. Youth and veterans, generals and privates, farmers and teachers—all were called into the conflict or its aftermath, an event that changed a community, a military institute, and the very fate of the Shenandoah Valley.