From our treasurer and traveling historian Tom Holtz.
Yesterday I spent the morning on the New Market Battlefield in New Market Virginia.
The site contains the battlefield and the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. The museum is state of the art with exhibits, dioramas, interpretive maps and artifacts including an extensive weapons collection. A 45 minute film is also played on the hour.
The Museum and battlefield are state properties managed by the Virginia Military Institute, thus there is a focus on the VMI cadets at the battle.
The battlefield has a walking tour of over one mile and a parallel driving tour the takes you to the Bushong Farm, the center of the action, and beyond up to the Union artillery positions.
The battlefield is split by Interstate 81 but you can cross through a tunnel under the highway to get to the site of the 56th Pennsylvania monument.
This is a well preserved and we’ll interpreted battlefield well worth visiting.
If you want to do do justice to the museum, watch the film and do the full walking tour, it will take every bit of three hours.
Highly recommended.
A few side notes. I can testify to Toms information. This site is wonderfully preserved battlefield and very easily accusable to those traveling HWY 81 in the Valley of Virginia. There is also a movie out centered on the Cadets and the Battle that is pretty entertaining called the Field of Lost Shoes. You can find it on UTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUjcWtA3C-s And, New Market is a wonderful town that should be visited. Small with a few restaurants (my favorite is Jacksons Corner Cafe in the Strayer House) and antique stores it represents well the typical small town in the very historic Valley of Virginia.
Thanks Tom for this report. Looking forward to your next one.
