The Church Cemetery

Across the road stood the cemetery at what was St. Matthew's Lutheran Church during the Civil War. On the morning of the Battle of New Market, six Union cannon commanded by Capt. Alonzo Snow occupied the cemetery and supported Union infantry positioned along River Road. When Confederate cannon on Shirley's Hill, three-quarters of a mile away, fired the first shots of the battle at 8am, Snow's guns answered, and Confederate counterbattery fire sent shells crashing among the tombstones, with stray shots falling in the streets of town. The artillery exchange continued through the morning, and when Confederate infantry advanced over Shirley's Hill at 11am, Snow's guns fired on them, with one shell exploding in the ranks of the slower-marching VMI Cadets and wounding five. Later, as Confederates pushed Federals through town, some of the fighting spilled through the cemetery, where Lydie Clinedinst recalled seeing hand-to-hand combat in the old churchyard. After the Battle of New Market, many Confederate dead were interred there, including four VMI Cadets buried two days after the battle, though six cadets in all were ultimately buried there before later reinterment elsewhere. Their bodies were carried in caissons along the Valley Turnpike, accompanied by surviving cadets and townspeople, and local resident Perry Cook recalled that a large grave for four was dug in the old cemetery, three volleys were fired, and then the grave was filled. The people of New Market refused to allow Union dead to be buried in the cemetery, so exhausted Confederates hastily buried them outside town along the turnpike under only a few inches of earth. Rain later washed away the dirt, and when Federals under Gen. David Hunter returned to New Market two weeks later, they found decomposing body parts of their comrades protruding from the ground.

New Market, Virginia · United States