The Battle of New Market / Edition 1

by William C. Davis

Overview

In this book, William C. Davis narrates one of the most memorable and crucial of the engagements fought for control of the strategically vital Shenandoah Valley — a battle that centered on the farming community of New Market. There, Confederate forces under the command of General John C. Breckinridge defeated the numerically superior army commanded by the Union's hapless General Franz Sigel. Outnumbered by a margin of four to one at the beginning of the conflict, Breckinridge was desperate for additional men. He sent out a call for assistance to the Virginia Military Institute, and the school responded by sending 258 members of its Corps of Cadets into battle — some of them as young as fifteen years old. In the action that followed, 57 of them would be killed or wounded.
In vivid detail, The Battle of New Market tells of Breckinridge's audacious domination of the battlefield and of Sigel's tragic ineptitude; of the opposing troops, both seasoned and untried; of the fate of prisoners and of the wounded; and, perhaps most memorably, of the gallantry of the cadets who marched from the classrooms of VMI directly into the heat of battle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807110782
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1983
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

William C. Davis, a professor of history and executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, is the author of numerous books on the Civil War, including Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War, The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn't Go Home, and Duel Between the First Ironclads.

Editorial Reviews

Reprint of the 1975 Doubleday original. One of the best Civil War historians recounts a battle in which a hastily assembled and outnumbered Confederate force, including youngsters from the Virginia Military Institution, defeated a superior Yankee army. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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