Battle of New Market Trivia Quiz

Answer: May 15, 1864

The New Market Campaign officially began April 28, 1864, when Federal forces marched south from Martinsburg, WV, headed southward up the Shenandoah Valley toward Staunton, VA. Contact between Union and Confederate forces first occurred in the vicinity of New Market on May 13, when a Federal cavalry force crossed Massanutten Mountain at New Market Gap and encountered Confederate cavalry under Brigadier General John D. Imboden.

Answer: John C. Breckinridge

John Cabell Breckinridge was a Kentucky lawyer turned politician who served as vice-president under President James Buchanan. When the Democratic Party was unable to chose a Presidential candidate for the 1860 election, Breckinridge was nominated by the Southern Democrats for the office. He finished second in the election of 1860 to Abraham Lincoln.

Answer: Edward O.C. Ord

Maj. Gen. E.O.C. Ord was a favorite of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who had recently been given command of all Union armies. Franz Sigel's ability to command had been called into question throughout the war, but his popularity among the German-American population all but required that he receive a high-profile command under Grant. Grant therefore gave Sigel command of the Department of West Virginia - mainly an administrative desk job - and assigned Ord command of the field force in West Virginia. However, Ord and Sigel came to despise one another and Ord's tenure lasted only a few weeks before he requested reassignment.

At one point he lamented to his wife that he would take a commission as a Lt. Col. in the Engineer Corps if it meant getting out from under Sigel.

Answer: Jacob Bushong

The Bushongs came to the Shenandoah Valley in the late 1790s. Jacob Bushong, patriarch of the "battlefield house" family married Sarah Strickler of Page County in the mid-1810s and they built their first home on their 400-acre farm north of New Market ca. 1817.

A second larger home was built beside the older one in the early 1820s and was added onto in the decade before the Civil War. Both homes still stand today, and the newer one was used as a Bed & Breakfast in the first part of the 20th century.

When New Market Battlefield Park first opened in the 1960s, the Bushong House served as the original visitor center.

Answer: Scott Ship

Lt. Col. Scott Ship (he changed the spelling of his name after the war to "Shipp") was Commandant of Cadets for VMI. He was an 1859 graduate of the Institute himself and had served briefly in the 4th Virginia Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia, before returning to Lexington. Shipp later was Superintendent of VMI 1890-1907.

F.H. Smith was VMI Superintendent, and illness prevented him from taking the field with the cadets. William Gilham, author of a much-used training manual for volunteers and militia, accompanied the cadets as acting superintendent but took no role in commanding them. R.L. Madison was the post surgeon.

Answer: Collier H. Minge

Collier H. Minge, Class of 1864, was senior cadet captain and thus given command of the cadet artillery section. His son, Collier Jr., graduated from VMI in 1900.

Otis A. Glazebrook, Class of 1866, was second in command of the artillery section. He was a founder of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at VMI.

William C. Hardy, Class of 1864, was 1st Lt. of Company A, of the cadet battalion. He was a maternal uncle of Douglas MacArthur.

Oliver P. Evans, Class of 1865, was color bearer for the cadet battalion. He was a lawyer and judge after the war in California.

Answer: Edward R. Turner

"The New Market Campaign" by University of Michigan European History professor Edward R. Turner first appeared in 1912. He was aided in his research by many veterans of the battle, including George M. Edgar, commander of the 26th Virginia Battalion, Benjamin A. Colonna, one of the VMI Cadets, and several others. Though Turner proclaimed his work to be an impartial one, it is almost entirely from the Southern point of view and gives much of the credit for the battle's outcome to Edgar's 26th VA Bttn.

It stood as the only book-length study of the battle until William C. Davis released his "Battle of New Market" in 1975. Neither Freeman nor Wittenberg have written about New Market.

Answer: 1st Missouri Cavalry and 54th Pennsylvania Infantry

Although markers have been erected marking the positions of the first Union line on Manor's Hill, the only two monuments erected by veterans of the battle are the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry monument, just west of the old Valley Pike, and Charles Woodson's 1st Missouri Cavalry, Company A, in the Bushong orchard.

Alfred von Kleiser's 30th New York Battery likely wanted to forget New Market, as they lost three of their six guns there. The 34th Massachusetts lost roughly half their number there in the regiment's first engagement. After the war Henry A. DuPont, then a Senator from Delaware, procured Federal funds to repay VMI for damages it incurred when it was burned one month after the battle. The 23rd Virginia Cavalry found a flooded creek between itself and the Federals and played no active role on May 15. The battlefield park today is administered by VMI, but there is no actual monument to the cadets on site.

Answer: Clarence Derrick

Clarence Derrick, commander of the 23rd Virginia Battalion, was a classmate of George A. Custer in the USMA Class of 1861. Custer was last, Derrick was fifth.

Answer: Illinois

Missouri: Charles Woodson's 1st Missouri Cavalry, Company A.
New York: 30th New York Battery, 21st New York Cavalry, 1st NY Veteran Cavalry, 1st NY (Lincoln) Cavalry.
Connecticut: 18th Connecticut Infantry.
Illinois: none.