Civil War
New Market
Welcome to New Market, Virginia
Explore New Market Battlefield
Discover 22 stories across New Market and the surrounding area that tell the story of the town and the battle. Follow the tour in order, or explore at your own pace by visiting the interpretive signage around New Market.
The peaceful beauty of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was shattered during the American Civil War. Today you can still view much of the landscape as it was seen by soldiers and civilians during the war, and explore the region's dramatic Civil War story at historic sites, battlefields, courthouses, cemeteries, walking trails, and museums that reveal how the war reshaped the Valley.
Begin the Audio TourPrefer to listen by phone? Call 540-452-9004 and enter the stop number.
Preserving hallowed ground
About the National Historic District
In 1996, Congress designated eight Virginia counties as the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, preserving and interpreting the region’s Civil War battlefields and historic sites.
The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation works with local partners to protect these places, share their stories, and welcome visitors to the Valley.
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The Battle of
New Market
This audio tour stop has been sponsored in memory of Benjamin Howard Chancey.
This is an overview of the battle, not a physical tour stop. Listen here before exploring the places where the story unfolded.
A battle remembered
The Battle of New Market was one of the last major Confederate victories in the Shenandoah Valley. It is especially remembered as the only time in American history that the entire student body of a college—the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Corps of Cadets—fought as a unit in a pitched battle.
Two forces converge
As part of his spring offensive against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered Gen. Franz Sigel to advance through the Shenandoah Valley along the Valley Pike and destroy the railroad and canal complex at Lynchburg.
At New Market, Sigel was blocked by a makeshift Confederate force commanded by Gen. John C. Breckinridge.
The line breaks
Confederates attacked Sigel’s numerically superior force, driving it out of town and onto the hills to the north, while Federal cavalry and infantry attacks failed to halt the advance.
At a crucial point, Breckinridge ordered his entire force forward, including the VMI Cadet Battalion, and the advance broke Sigel’s line.
With Confederate cavalry threatening his left flank and rear, Sigel ordered a general withdrawal, and his troops burned the North Fork Bridge as they retreated north toward Cedar Creek.
Shirley’s Hill
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of Robert Montague III.
New Market’s terrain shaped the battle. Along the west side of the Valley Turnpike ran a series of hills, the tallest of them Shirley’s Hill, just southwest of town. Confederate guns positioned here began the artillery assault and dueled with Federal guns near St. Matthew’s Church. The main Confederate infantry line also formed on this hill before advancing.
The advance from the hill
Across US-211 to the north are Manor’s Hill and Bushong Hill, where much of the battle unfolded. As the Confederates moved forward, Gen. Gabriel Wharton’s brigade ran down the slope of Shirley’s Hill to escape Federal artillery fire. The Virginia Military Institute cadets descended in parade formation, leaving them exposed to Union guns near the Lutheran Church. Four cadets were wounded, though none fatally.
Find Shirley’s Hill
This stop is on Cadet Road, next to the baseball field at New Market Community Park. The small parking lot beside the field offers a view of the hill.
Directions to this stop
Henkel House
This house was built in 1802 by Dr. Solomon Henkel. In 1855, his son Solon Henkel added two rooms upstairs and the wooden facade that you see today. In June of 1864, a Henkel relative doused some passing Union soldiers with hot water from an upstairs window. A metal plate on the front door covers damage done when the Federals tried to break down the door.
A view of the Union lines
During the Battle of New Market, Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge climbed onto the roof of this building to survey the Union lines near Bushong’s Hill. He accessed the roof through a hatch in the attic. As soon as he raised his binoculars, he immediately drew enemy fire which forced him to retreat from the roof.
Find Henkel House
9417 S Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
Adjacent to the public town parking lot.
Directions to this stop
Civil War to
Civil Rights
This audio tour location has been made possible by The Society for Women and the Civil War.
Jessie Rupert’s New Market school
This building was known as the Woodworth Cottage Institute and was constructed around 1869 by New Market resident Jessie Rupert. This was a day school for white children and a night school for black children.
Jessie Rupert settled in New Market in 1858 and was the principal of the New Market Female Seminary School during the Civil War.
After the Civil War, she was evicted from her seminary but was able to build this new schoolhouse with financial assistance from the Freedman’s Bureau, the American Missionary Society, and members of the 34th Massachusetts.
Facing hostility
Attendance to the school dropped once residents became aware she was teaching black students and had received funds from the North. She even faced great hostility after she and her students hung an American flag from the attic window to celebrate George Washington’s Birthday.
One night the Ku Klux Klan showed up at her door. Jessie Rupert, armed with a pistol, said she would shoot the first man that crossed the doorway and with that, they left her alone and the flag flying.
Find the schoolhouse
9401 S Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
To the right of Jalisco Mexican Restaurant.
Directions to this stopJessie Rupert’s story
Show Jessie Rupert video
The Strayer
House
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of James Pearman Jr.
A house at the heart of New Market
The original portion of the Strayer House was built around 1808 by John Strayer, who was married to Dorcas Lincoln, a first cousin of Abraham Lincoln’s father.
In May 1862, General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson reviewed his troops from the stoop of the building.
Between the battle lines
Located at one of the Valley’s most historic crossroads, some of the earliest fighting of the Battle of New Market took place near here. The house stood between the battle lines as skirmishing began early that morning.
Confederate cannon fire from Shirley Hill crashed into the streets of town. The fighting then engulfed the area as Confederate troops moved north along both sides of the Valley Turnpike, driving Federal forces out of New Market.
Find the Strayer House
9386 S Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
Two generals, one house
Show Strayer House video
New Market Crossroads
This audio tour stop has been sponsored courtesy of Larry D. Anderson.
Founded in 1765, New Market was originally called Cross Roads because two historic Native American hunting trails met here. One became the route of today’s US 11, later known as the Valley Turnpike. This stone-surfaced road ran the length of the Shenandoah Valley from Winchester to Staunton and was vital to control of the Valley.
The road through New Market Gap
Today’s US 211 leads west toward West Virginia and east toward central Virginia. To the east, it reaches Luray through New Market Gap, the only passable route across Massanutten Mountain. In the leadup to the Battle of New Market, both sides understood the gap’s importance: it offered a backdoor to the left flank of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Find New Market Crossroads
9383 N Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
Pro-Union Civilians
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of Tom and Lesley Mack.
Not everyone in New Market supported secession. During the Civil War, the Zeiler family and schoolmistress Jessie Rupert held pro-Union views and later cared for wounded Union soldiers.
A dissenting vote
This historic house was home to the Zeiler family during the Civil War. Ferdinand Zeiler immigrated from Germany to America in 1842 and settled in New Market five years later. He was the only man in New Market to vote against secession.
After the Battle of New Market, the Zeilers opened their home as a hospital for wounded Union soldiers. Nineteen-year-old Mollie Zeiler personally cared for the men, including Capt. William B. Bonacker of the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry, who survived despite having been declared mortally wounded.
A teacher’s defiance
Jessie Rupert was a New Market schoolmistress who had been privately educated in the North and strongly opposed slavery. In 1861, she was briefly imprisoned after burning a Confederate flag, but Stonewall Jackson pardoned her.
Following the Battle of New Market, Rupert also opened her home to wounded soldiers. Among the men she helped save was Ensign Smith of the 34th Massachusetts Infantry. Her care and loyalty earned her the title “Daughter of the 34th Massachusetts.”
Find this stop
9346 N Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
At the corner of Congress Street and Seminary Lane.
Directions to this stop
First Integrated Church
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of Manor Memorial Methodist Church.
Manor Memorial Methodist Church has served New Market since the nineteenth century. In 1965, it became the town’s first integrated church when two other Methodist congregations joined it.
A changing building
The original wooden portion of Manor Memorial Methodist Church was completed in 1861. Over the next 150 years, the congregation enlarged and changed the building, adding a new cupola in 1898 and a brick veneer in 1931.
A congregation on Cadet Road
In 1873, New Market’s African American Methodist congregation built Asbury Methodist Church on Cadet Road. Little is known about the building. A 1954 newspaper article described it as a white clapboard church with a belfry that seated 100 people.
The article focused on an unusual visitor: a local horse that attended services by putting its head through one of the windows.
A historic merger
In 1965, Asbury Methodist Church in New Market and Calvary Methodist Church in Mount Jackson merged with Manor Memorial. The merger made Manor Memorial the first integrated church in New Market.
Find this stop
Manor Memorial Methodist Church
9320 N Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
The Clinedinst-Crim House
This audio tour stop has been made possible by John and Cynthia Crim.
The house standing here today was built in 1881 by local carriage manufacturer John W. Clinedinst. It replaced the family’s earlier home, where Lydie Clinedinst watched the Battle of New Market unfold in 1864.
Witness to the battle
Twenty-six-year-old Lydie Clinedinst saw Confederate soldiers charge down Shirley’s Hill during the Battle of New Market. In the days that followed, the family home became a place of care for a gravely wounded VMI cadet.
Thomas Garland Jefferson
After the battle, VMI cadet Moses Ezekiel found his friend Thomas Garland Jefferson severely wounded and arranged for him to be brought to the Clinedinst home. Ezekiel personally cared for Jefferson until he died around midnight on May 18. Lydie later wrote of Ezekiel’s devotion, saying even Jefferson’s mother could not have done more for him.
Eliza Clinedinst-Crim
Eliza Clinedinst later married Confederate veteran John Crim. She kept in touch with VMI veterans of the Battle of New Market, especially Moses Ezekiel. Eliza died in this house in 1931 at age 93 and is buried in Emmanuel Lutheran Cemetery.
Learn more
Find this stop
9349 N Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
Opening Artillery Duel
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of Mookda and M. Shane Hubbard.
On the northwestern side of New Market, an artillery duel opened the battle. Confederate guns on Shirley’s Hill faced Union artillery near St. Matthew’s Cemetery and Reformation Church.
Guns across the town
Confederate forces formed on Shirley’s Hill and placed several cannons along its slope. Across from them, the 1st West Virginia Infantry occupied a position along the Valley Pike near the church. Six guns of the 1st Maryland Light Artillery, commanded by Capt. Alonzo Snow, stood in St. Matthew’s Cemetery.
Fire across New Market
Early in the morning, Confederate gunners fired on Federal troops in New Market, and Snow’s battery returned fire. As shot and shell fragments flew through town, frightened residents sheltered in their homes.
Union Col. Augustus Moor held his position along the River Road rather than retreat. As the artillery fire diminished, Confederate infantry prepared to advance down Shirley’s Hill and retake New Market.
Find this stop
Northwestern New Market
Near St. Matthew’s Cemetery and Reformation Church
Action on the River Road
Here along the historic River Road, Union troops under Col. Augustus Moor formed their main line in New Market on the morning of the battle. Their task was to hold back the Confederate advance until the rest of the Union army could arrive.
A line under pressure
As Confederate infantry prepared to attack, Companies A and B of the 18th Connecticut spread out as skirmishers behind this location. They encountered soldiers of the 30th Virginia, and the fighting became intense. Capt. William Spaulding of the 18th Connecticut was killed on the field shortly after asking, “Are they driving us?”
Falling back toward Bushong Farm
Confederates under Gen. Gabriel Wharton drove back the Union regiments and took up a position along River Road. Moor’s force had been trying to delay them while the main Union army, spread over several miles, gathered. Once relieved, the men fell back toward Union troops mobilizing near Bushong Farm.
Learn more
Find this stop
Historic River Road
New Market, Virginia 22844
The Church Cemetery
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of Albert and Jacqueline Alling.
This is the historic St. Matthew’s Cemetery. A Lutheran congregation built the original St. Matthew’s Church here in 1848, and the grounds became part of the Battle of New Market sixteen years later.
On the Union flank
The corner of the cemetery beside the Valley Pike, now U.S. Route 11, marked the left flank of Union forces in town. Several guns of Capt. Alonzo Snow’s Maryland Light Artillery were positioned in the cemetery.
As Confederate troops and the VMI cadets came down Shirley’s Hill, Snow’s battery fired on them. Later, Confederate soldiers under Gen. Gabriel Wharton crossed these grounds while pushing Union troops toward the main line forming near Bushong Farm.
The cadets laid to rest
Two days after the battle, VMI cadets and New Market residents joined a funeral procession for the cadets who had been killed. Six were buried here. Four of them were later reinterred at VMI beneath the “Virginia Mourning Her Dead” memorial, sculpted by New Market veteran Moses Ezekiel.
Find this stop
St. Matthew’s Cemetery
Beside Reformation Lutheran Church
9283 N Congress Street
New Market, Virginia 22844
Initial Union Line
This audio tour stop has been made possible courtesy of Mark and Karen Perrault.
On the morning of May 15, 1864, Union troops held this position in New Market. Across the street, a reproduction of the famous shell-struck post recalls a near miss during the battle.
The line in town
The 1st West Virginia held this ground, with the 123rd Ohio and 18th Connecticut positioned to the right. Confederate guns on Shirley’s Hill opened an artillery duel with the Federal battery commanded by Capt. Alonzo Snow in the nearby cemetery.
Around noon, Confederate soldiers pushed Col. Augustus Moor’s regiments north. Within roughly half an hour, they had taken downtown New Market. Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge and his staff rode through town along the Valley Turnpike and stopped near the church to survey the Union positions.
A narrow escape
As Breckinridge raised his binoculars, a three-inch artillery round struck a fence post nearby. Splinters showered the general and his staff, but the shell did not explode. It remained lodged in the original post well into the twentieth century.
The reproduction across the street marks both the intensity of the fire in downtown New Market and the danger Breckinridge faced at this spot.
Find this stop
Initial Union Line and shell-struck post
New Market, Virginia 22844
Valley Turnpike and March to Battle
In the days before the Battle of New Market, Union and Confederate forces moved toward one another through the Shenandoah Valley. The road through town became part of their approach to battle.
Sigel marches south
Union Gen. Franz Sigel left Winchester with approximately 9,000 men. Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge quickly assembled about 5,300 troops to meet him, including 257 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute. Sigel advanced cautiously down the Valley.
The armies close in
On May 13, a small Federal cavalry force that crossed New Market Gap was ambushed and destroyed by Confederate forces under Gen. John D. Imboden. The next day, Sigel reached the Woodstock and Mount Jackson area and sent Col. Augustus Moor with an improvised brigade toward New Market.
Moor’s men forced Imboden’s troops to withdraw from town, then took up a defensive position as the rest of the Union army approached.
Find this stop
Valley Turnpike stop
New Market, Virginia 22844
The Rice Farm
The house before you, later known as Stanley Hall, is among the Shenandoah Valley’s notable examples of Greek Revival architecture. Built in the 1830s by Dr. John W. Rice, it became a headquarters, a hospital, and eventually a home for children.
Dr. Rice’s homestead
Dr. John W. Rice was one of Shenandoah County’s largest landowners and one of Virginia’s largest slaveholders. The house stood beside the Valley Turnpike, a location that gave the property strategic importance during the Civil War.
In the spring of 1862, Rice’s widow allowed Stonewall Jackson to use the property during his Valley Campaign.
Headquarters and hospital
Before and during the Battle of New Market, Union Col. Augustus Moor used the property as a headquarters, followed by Union Gen. Franz Sigel. As the fighting moved north, Federal troops left the house; an artillery shell later exploded in one of its bedrooms. After the battle, Stanley Hall served as a hospital for wounded soldiers.
A building with many lives
Renovated in 1927 as the Hines Memorial Pythian Home, the building provided boarding for orphans and other children. In later years it served other purposes, including a terminal and rest stop for the Mason-Dixon Lines trucking company. The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation preserved Stanley Hall in 2022.
Stanley Hall’s Civil War story
Find this stop
The Rice Farm / Stanley Hall
New Market, Virginia 22844
Manor’s Hill
Manor’s Hill is one of the commanding heights around New Market. Union troops held it as the Confederates approached town, but the strength of the ground could not make up for their smaller numbers.
Union troops take New Market
After skirmishing with Confederate cavalry at Rude’s Hill, Union regiments under Col. Augustus Moor took possession of New Market. They established a defensive position on Manor’s Hill for the battle that followed the next morning.
A strong but thin line
Union cavalry under Col. John E. Wynkoop held this position alongside infantry from the 18th Connecticut and 123rd Ohio. The 1st West Virginia stood on the left flank near Reformation Church. Manor’s Hill offered a naturally strong position, but too few men were available to withstand a major attack.
Following an artillery duel that lasted nearly two hours, skirmishers from the Confederate 30th Virginia pushed Moor’s regiments off the hill at about 11 a.m. The Federals withdrew toward Bushong Farm, where the main Union force was arriving as the Confederate army prepared to advance.
Find this stop
Manor’s Hill
New Market, Virginia 22844
Assault on Bushong’s Hill
Between about 2:30 and 3:00 p.m., fighting swept across this part of the battlefield. Union troops held a strong position on Bushong’s Hill, with mostly open ground in front of them that left the approaching Confederates exposed.
Across the open ground
The Confederate front line advanced into heavy Union infantry and artillery fire. Some regiments stalled or fell back, opening a dangerous gap in the line as the battle intensified around Bushong’s Hill.
The reserves called forward
With the gap widening, Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge called on his only reserves: the young Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets. He gave the order to “Put the boys in, and may God forgive me for the order.”
Follow the Virginia Trail
The Virginia Trail begins at the New Market Battlefield Military Museum. Follow it north for about half a mile, past the Virginia monument, until you reach a large grassy field. The stop marker is about halfway across the field, running parallel to the fence.
Find this stop
Along the Virginia Trail
New Market Battlefield, Virginia
The Cavalry Counterattack
This audio tour location has been made possible through the generosity of Brian Mattingly.
As the Battle of New Market intensified, Federal cavalry under Gen. Julius Stahel charged south, parallel to the Valley Pike. Confederate artillery and infantry met the attack in rain and mud.
Stopped by Confederate fire
Confederate artillery and the 22nd, 23rd, and 62nd Virginia infantry regiments repelled Stahel’s cavalry. The failed charge left his horsemen with little ability to influence the rest of the battle. Union troops of the 54th Pennsylvania also advanced south along the Valley Pike but were forced to retreat.
VMI cadet artillery
Infantry Counterattack
After the first Confederate assault on Bushong’s Hill was repulsed, Union Gen. Franz Sigel ordered an infantry counterattack. By then, the Confederate line had recovered and was moving forward again.
The gap closes
The 26th Virginia and the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets filled the dangerous gap left by the first assault. With the line stabilized, Confederate troops surged toward the Union position as Sigel prepared his response.
A piecemeal attack
Col. Joseph Thoburn commanded the counterattack, but poor coordination sent his regiments forward one at a time. The 1st West Virginia, 34th Massachusetts, and 54th Pennsylvania each faced concentrated Confederate fire without the full support of the others. In danger of being surrounded, the Union troops withdrew north along the Valley Pike.
The Union Line Collapses
The first Confederate assault on Bushong’s Hill had been repulsed, leaving a dangerous opening in the attacking line. The 26th Virginia and the Virginia Military Institute cadets moved forward under heavy artillery fire to fill it.
Through the orchard
The cadets moved around the Bushong House and through an apple orchard to a fence, where they exchanged fire with Union troops. Their advance helped close the gap as poorly coordinated Federal counterattacks were repulsed with heavy losses.
The line gives way
As Union artillery crews took casualties, Gen. Franz Sigel withdrew the guns. Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge then ordered an assault through the rain and mud. Outflanked and overwhelmed, the Union defenders retreated north along the Valley Pike as their line collapsed.
Follow the Virginia Trail
Begin at the New Market Battlefield Military Museum and follow the Virginia Trail north for about half a mile. Pass the Virginia monument and continue to a large grassy field. The stop marker is about halfway across the field, parallel to the fence.
Find this stop
Along the Virginia Trail
New Market Battlefield, Virginia
Summers-Koontz Site
This audio tour stop has been made possible by SCV Camps Summers & Koontz #490 and Capt. Jack Adams #1951.
This memorial marks the site where former Confederates George Summers and Isaac Koontz were executed on June 27, 1865, more than two months after the surrender at Appomattox.
An encounter on the road
Summers, Koontz, and two other members of the Massanutten Rangers were traveling to Woodstock to receive pardons when they encountered several Union cavalrymen. The men drew their revolvers and took the soldiers’ horses and other property.
They later surrendered to the nearby commander of the 192nd Ohio. After the property was returned, he pardoned them. About a month later, a temporary commander of the regiment ordered their arrest and execution, possibly prompted by reports from Page County Unionist William Tharp.
Execution and remembrance
Privates Jacob Koontz and Andrew Kite escaped. George Summers and Isaac Koontz were marched to this site near the Federal camp, where they were tied to a stake and shot that evening. A wooden memorial was placed here soon afterward; the marble monument standing today replaced it in 1893.
Find this stop
Summers-Koontz memorial
Near New Market, Virginia
Rude’s Hill
Just north of New Market, Rude’s Hill offered a strong defensive position along the Valley Turnpike, now U.S. Route 11. After his defeat at the First Battle of Kernstown in April 1862, Stonewall Jackson made his headquarters here at Locust Grove Farm.
The day before the battle
Confederate cavalry skirmished near Rude’s Hill with Union regiments under Col. Augustus Moor. The delay gave Confederate infantry critical time to arrive in force before the Battle of New Market.
The Union retreat
After the Battle of New Market, the Union army retreated across Rude’s Hill toward the North Fork Bridge over the Shenandoah River. The battle-weary Confederates pressed forward, and just after 4 p.m. the 28th and 116th Ohio made a stand here in an effort to slow their advance.
With crucial support from Capt. Henry duPont’s 5th U.S. Artillery, Franz Sigel’s army crossed the river. DuPont’s artillerists then burned the bridge, bringing the Battle of New Market to an end.
Find Rude’s Hill
Rude’s Hill
New Market, Virginia