The Battle of New Market took place on May 15, 1864 during what is known as the Valley Campaigns of 1864. A larger Union force being the Army of the Shenandoah under Major General Franz Sigel was defeated while confronting a smaller Confederate force totaling some 4,100 men. Among the Confederate force were the cadets of Virginia Military Institute which were ordered into battle by Confederate general John C. Breckinridge. This is the most remembered aspect of the battle today where 10 VMI cadets were killed or died of their wounds and 45 were wounded out of the total of 257 cadets that participated in the battle. A section of the battlefield where many cadets lost their shoes is known as the “Field of Lost Shoes” and inspired the fictionalized 2014 film by the same name.

Sarah Kay Bierle is the managing editor for Emerging Civil War and is a staff member with Central Virginia Battlefields Trust. She earned her B.A. in History from Thomas Edison State University and she is the author of four books including Call Out The Cadets: The Battle of New Market, May 15, 1864.