New Market, VA

Morning fog hangs in the Shenandoah Valley as reenactors camp on the battlefield. May 2012

Most of the major Civil War battlefields in this country are administered and maintained by the National Park Service. However, a small number of Civil War battlegrounds have been preserved and protected by private groups. One of these is the Battlefield at New Market, Virginia.

Maintained by “The Friends of New Market Battlefield” this relatively small but intimate battleground of the Civil War is deep in the heart of Virginia’s famed Shenandoah Valley. Surrounded by mountains and farms the panorama from this battlefield is an unmarred view – a near pristine 19th century landscape.

The small town of New Market, Virginia played a pivotal role throughout the Civil War. Desperate fighting between Union and Confederate armies raged up and down the Shenandoah Valley most notably during the Union Valley Campaigns of 1862 and 1864.

Image and text by Michael Falco