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This full 360 degree panoramic photograph was taken on The Field of Lost Shoes, the sight of the charge of the Virginia Military Institute Cadets at The Battle of New Market, May 15, 1864. The spring of that year Ulysses Grant began implementation of his grand strategy to defeat the Confederacy. Part of that plan was to send Major General Franz Sigel with several thousand Union troops up the Shenandoah Valley. To counter this move, Major General John C. Breckenridge fielded a smaller army of Confederates. In its reserve were 257 Cadets from VMI. Despite their young age and inexperience, Breckenridge did not hesitate to bring them into action when the successful Confederate drive to push back the Union advance stalled on the Bushong Farm near New Market. Taking a position in a gap in the line along the fence shown in the photograph, the Cadets charged across the rain soaked field, captured part of a Union battery and helped push Sigel back down the Valley and out of the war. They paid a high price, nearly 25% casualties including 10 killed in action. Their sacrifice has been long remembered at VMI and throughout the South.
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