Rude’s Hill

Rude’s Hill. Knoll of Refuge and Attack. , The spring of 1864 opened with United States forces pressing Confederate armies defending fronts scattered throughout the Confederacy. Union Gen. Franz Sigel was assigned the task of securing the Shenandoah Valley; always one of the Civil War’s most hotly contested areas. On the last day of April 1864, Sigel, with 9,000 men and 28 guns, marched south from Martinsburg. By May 11, Sigel’s advance ran into Confederates posted at Rude’s Hill under the command of a Maryland Confederate, Capt. T. Sturgis Davis. Davis and his commander, Gen. John Imboden, were able to delay the Federal advance until Gen. John C. Breckinridge arrived at New Market with his small army, including the Virginia Military Institute Cadet Battalion. On the eve of his May 15th success at New Market, Breckinridge advanced his artillery to the crest of this hill where they shelled Sigel’s disorganized, retreating Federals. , Rude’s Hill was again the site of Confederate refuge during the days following their demoralizing and humiliating defeat at the Battle of Fisher’s Hill, September 22, 1864. Gen. Jubal Early deployed his Confederate infantry into line of battle along the crest of the hill to check the Federal advance before retiring on to Brown’s Gap in the Blue Ridge. , On Oct. 3. 1864, the famous partisan ranger, Capt. John H. McNeill, led a command of approximately 50 men in a predawn attack against a Federal detachment guarding the Shenandoah River bridge. Mortally wounded in this attack, McNeill was carried by his comrades to “Locust Grove,” formerly the Rude home, where he was cared for until removed south to Harrisonburg where he died. During his stay at Locust Grove his disguised identity was uncovered by Gen. Philip Sheridan, now the Federal commander, who reported “McNeill was mortally wounded and fell into our hands. This was fortunate, as he was the most daring and dangerous of all the bushwackers in this section of the country.”