Fighting in the Streets

Fighting in the Streets. "Between the contending armies". , "It was a night of horror" , - Jessie Rupert, on the night before the battle, During the Battle of New Market, the fighting engulfed the streets around you, bringing terror to the people who lived here., Fighting first spilled through town on May 13, two days before the main battle, when Confederate cavalry under Gen. John Imboden tore through the intersection to your left as they raced to ambush a Union cavalry force descending the gap in the mountains. Late the next day, May 14, advance elements of the Union and Confederate armies skirmished in and around town, rifle fire crackling in the streets, and that evening thunderous "cannonading commenced," as Lydie Clinedinst remembered. "My poor old mother and the little children...were taken to the cellar for protection.", That night, as gunfire rang out in the darkness, Jessie Rupert recalled, we "slept with our garments on, ready for flight, if driven in terror from our place between the contending armies." Some residents loaded their possessions into wagons and rumbled out of town, others buried their valuables, a number took "pigs and fowls into the house" - while some farmers "drove their cattle and negros" into town., When the battle commenced the next morning, the residents were terrified by artillery fire crashing into the streets. "Cannon balls and shells rolled and exploded in every direction..." Jessie Rupert recalled. "The air was filled with dust and smoke, and curses and shrieks." Jessie and her husband placed their child under their floorboards for protection. Perry Cook sought refuge in a cellar, where everyone "walked the floor and did not speak a word." During a lull in fighting, he ventured outside, but when another cannon shell burst nearby, he scrambled back to safety. Coming to a fence, he later could not remember "if I opened the gate or jumped it.", As the fighting intensified, the Confederate 62nd and 22nd Virginia Infantry regiments marched down the street behind you as they pushed the Federals through town, shots, shouts, and orders ringing out, and bullets whining through the air and smashing into buildings., (Captions):, Downtown New Market at the time of the Civil War. The scene was taken at the intersection in front of this building, looking from your left to your right. , Image courtery New Market Area Library., Confederate Col. George S. Patton, grandfather of the famed World War II general, led the 22nd Virginia as it cleared the town., This marker was made possible through the generosity of James Pearman, Jr.