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Tag Archives: VMI cadets
Burying Their Friends: The VMI Cadets at New Market on May 17, 1864
It is quiet. The whispering hour of sunset fading into twilight. The traffic hums along on the adjacent Valley Pike, but the graveyard is silent. The dead I’ve come to remember aren’t actually here. Their bodies rest elsewhere—four in the … Continue reading
“For an Affectionate Mother like Yourself”
Cadet Beverly Standard (called “Jack” by his peers) wrote a delightful collection of letters to his widowed mother from Virginia Military Institute during 1863-1864. (I’ve written about them in detail here.) In April 1864, he wrote a letter which follows … Continue reading
Posted in Holidays, Primary Sources
Tagged Cadet Stanard, Mothers Day, primary source, VMI, VMI cadets
1 Comment
Photographic Portraits: Cadets Identified, Girl Unknown
“Those are cadet uniforms,” I thought while sorting through thumbnail files of digitized Civil War images on Library of Congress’s website. It was not at all what I was looking for at the moment, but I bookmarked the page to … Continue reading
Posted in Civilian, Common Soldier, Photography
Tagged Battle of New Market, Civil War Civilians, civil war photography, photographs, VMI, VMI cadets
10 Comments
Oliver P. Evans: A Colorbearer at New Market
May 15 marked a defining day and the ending day of Oliver Perry Evans’s life, but not in the same year. However, his story began on June 2, 1842, when he was born near Jackson Court House, Virginia (now West … Continue reading
Posted in Battles, Common Soldier
Tagged Battle of New Market, Call Out The Cadets, Oliver P. Evans, VMI cadets
6 Comments
New Market’s Memory Wars
Remember what you ate for breakfast on Wednesday two weeks ago? And if you remember the meal, what time did you pour the cereal, turn on the stove, or place your order? Memory and remembering can be challenging. However, it … Continue reading
The Determined Delinquents On A Summer’s Day
Recently, I sat in the solemn, silent archives, reading The End of an Era by John S. Wise. Among his treasury of memories and musings about antebellum Virginia, slavery, and the Civil War, there are several sections focused on cadet … Continue reading
Posted in Common Soldier, Personalities
Tagged Battle of New Market, John S. Wise, Virginia Military Institute, VMI cadets
2 Comments
New Market in Mississippi
I just returned from a weekend trip to St. Simons Island, Georgia. It’s a marvelous little beach town, with an attendant gentility. I saw this sign in a yard near the Lighthouse: “Where tramps must not, surely ladies and gentlemen … Continue reading
“Put the boys in, and may God forgive me for the order.”
They were merely boys, some just old enough to shave for the first time. The youngest was 15, the oldest 24. General John Cabell Breckenridge was adamant: the “boys” from the Virginia Military Institute would only be used as reinforcements … Continue reading
