Remembering the Fallen

Men died at the Battle of New Market, where 1,372 casualties amounted to 1 out of 8 soldiers who fought there, a casualty rate of 13 percent, higher than at battles such as Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor, and Malvern Hill. After the fighting ended, the battlefield was a sobering scene: one historian wrote that "The dead lay scattered thickly," a Confederate cavalryman said, "The yankeys lay dead and [wounded] & dying in abundance," and a local resident remembered that "Many on the battlefield died in the dreary rain" that night. Each death was a life cut short and a profound loss to those who knew and loved the fallen, including those who never returned home and left "the vacant chair" by the fireside. Estimated casualties at New Market were 531 total for the Confederates, including 43 or more killed, 474 wounded, and 3 missing, and 841 total for the Union, including 96 killed, 520 wounded, and 225 missing.

New Market, Virginia · United States