The Battle of New Market was similar to many others fought in the Shenandoah Valley, with one notable exception: the corps of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute was among the regiments on the field that fateful day. Confederate President Jefferson Davis affectionately referred to those boys, some as young as 15, as the "Seed Corn of the Confederacy." With only a few individual exceptions they had never been in battle. By day’s end they had stepped into the pages of history. Their gallantry earned them the respect of veteran soldiers on both sides. Their day culminated with the capture of a Union battery. The victory had a price, however. Ten of their number would die at New Market; more than 50 others would be wounded.

This is the first known account of the Battle of New Market written from the perspective of the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute.