The Battle of New Market: May 15, 1864, Virginia

Battle of New Market is a low complexity game of hex and counters. The same system Battle of Bentonville: March 19th-21st. Playing time is 1-3 hours. The counters are single sided and the CRT does not have a lot of ELM and no Exchanges. The players need to maneuver their units to cut off paths of retreat.

In the Spring of 1864 commander of all Union forces, Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, designed a strategy to attack the Confederacy on all fronts. This included a surge up the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Assigned to this task was Major General Franz Sigel. Although skeptical of Sigel’s prowess as a general, Grant was hopeful that Sigel could advance quickly enough to capture Staunton and threaten the flank of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia opposing Grant in the central part of the state.

Opposing Sigel was Confederate Major General John C. Breckenridge. Breckenridge a former Vice President of the United States put together a rag tag force of veteran soldiers and students from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). On May 15, 1864, in a driving rainstorm the two sides clashed at the Town of New Market. The battle was long and furious. A hole in the Confederate line compelled General Breckenridge to “Put the Boys in,” referencing the VMI cadets whom he had held in reserve. Using a fence line for cover, the veteran Confederate troops and VMI cadets traded unyielding fire with Sigel’s forces occupying Bushong’s Hill. With the rain falling hard and, in the smoke, and chaos of battle the entire Confederate line surged forward. As they ran across Bushong’s farm field many of their shoes were pulled off their feet by the thick Virginia mud. The union artillery was captured, including a gun by the cadets themselves. The field they charged across would forever be known as, “The Field of Lost Shoes.” Sigel’s forces were soundly defeated and forced to retreat. This would mark the only time in American history that a school’s student body would participate in an active battle.

The game system is very similar to the Battle of Bentonville hex a counter game with playability similar to SPI style with a bit more detail.