Getaway to the Shenandoah- From Jackson to the 54thPA

Much like the old joke "George Washington Slept Here", any corner, building, room, road or rock that General Stonewall Jackson was at there is a sign saying in effect "Jackson was on this spot". During 1862 he kept the Valley out of the hands of the Union forces. His strategies of war are well studied to this day... even General Rommel of Germany came and studied what Jackson did before WWII. 1862 was a good year for the Confederates in Virginia and the outcome of the war was looking quite good for them. In 1863 at Chancellorsville, while the Confederates won the battle, Jackson was mortally wounded and died a few days later that May. In June Lee took his troops north into Pennsylvania--- Gettysburg. Without Jackson, Lee just did not have the follow through that he needed, and the Confederates suffered their first major loss (they also lost in Vicksburg over those same days). The tide of war was changing and Lee and his Army while they could be victorious, could not win or recover from the losses at Gettysburg.

The Confederates last victory in the Shenandoah Valley was at New Market. It was there that the young cadets (15-19) from VMI where put into battle (http://www4.vmi.edu/museum/nm/ ). It was also there that the 54th PA fought....and those men where from my town and county. They fought around this farm house, while the grounds around it was a gastly scene, the house did not suffer any damage.

It was a sad sad time, the effects can still be seen and felt 145 years later. Yet the country was able to come back together. Personally I have no stake in the events of those years, my family came here between 1907-1920.