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Impacted Ordnance Found in Historic Bushong Farmhouse

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Impacted Ordnance Found in Historic Bushong Farmhouse 12 Civil War News September 2019 Impacted Ordnance Found in Historic Bushong Farmhouse By Lt. Colonel Troy D. Marshall the Bushong farm. Many plowed Cadet’s Cabell, Crockett, and Site Director, Virginia Museum the ground, into a tree, or hit an Jones; another rent the VMI of the Civil War unsuspecting soldier. colors. This year as part of a com- The Union artillery on prehensive rehabilitation of the At the time we passed the house Bushong’s Hill poured a devas- Bushong Farm, the oldest struc- the Federals were directing their tating fire into the orchard and ture on the farm, the 1818 House, fire upon us, and the house was Bushong Farm precinct. Cadet underwent exterior renovations made a sounding-board by the John Howard recalled the jarring that included clapboarding, win- striking of the missiles upon its scene he saw from behind a rail dow casings, and paint. All the sides. – Captain Frank Preston, fence that afternoon: I look back weatherboards from an earlier Lexington Gazette, May 25, 1864 upon that orchard as the most 1960’s renovation were removed, awful spot on the battle field…as offering battlefield staff a rare op- In the spring of 1864, the newly the shot and shell tore over and portunity to examine the exterior minted general-in-chief, Ulysses around us…I saw a cedar tree a walls for construction clues and S. Grant declared, My prima- yard high or thereabout with a perhaps even battle damage. ry mission is to…bring pressure trunk as big as my thumb. Not On April 11, 2019, the park’s to bear on the Confederacy so a very effective defense, but, no site director, Lieutenant Colonel no longer could it take advan- matter, anything from a white oak Troy D. Marshall, carefully ex- tage of interior lines. Control of to a wheat straw was better than 3-inch Hotchkiss canister shot embedded in the wood beam. amined all four sides of the struc- the strategically important and nothing, and I threw myself down ture. Something extraordinary troublesome Shenandoah Valley was determined to force the bat- Scott Shipp directed his battalion behind it. was found in the center of the was a key element in General tle. “I shall advance on him,” of cadets forward and for the first Cadet R. H. Cousins also north wall surface, an impacted Grant’s plan. While he confront- avowed Breckinridge. We can time they saw the full savagery remembered the horrific shock artillery projectile still there af- ed General Robert E. Lee’s Army attack and whip them here and I of battle directed right at them. of coming under fire after 2:45 ter 155 years. It turned out to be of Northern Virginia in the east, will do it. As they advanced, the silhouette p.m. We then went past the house an iron round shot from a 3-inch Grant ordered Major General After brushing aside Union of the Bushong Farm came into and got into the orchard, where Hotchkiss canister round. The im- Franz Sigel’s army of 10,000 men skirmishers west of town, the view and with it, more problems. canister and other missiles were pact zone is slightly elevated and to secure the Valley, and in so do- rebel infantry line came under Shipp quickly surmised a raining like hail. It seemed points north to the western end ing, threaten Lee’s left flank. fire from Federal troops north of solution, dividing the troops in impossible for men to pass through of the Union line on Bushong’s Receiving word that a Union the Bushong farm. half to pass on both sides of the such a storm. Cadet J.B. Baylor Hill. This probably places the army had entered the Valley, Devastating fire on the center Bushong home. Companies A echoed Cousins’ sentiments, We round as originating in one of Confederate General John C. of his line forced Breckinridge and B went right; C and D to were exposed to such a fire…that, Captain John Carlin’s 3-inch ord- Breckinridge pulled togeth- to put in his reserves, including the left. Their destination was if we had long remained in this nance rifles. Carlin’s Battery D, er all available forces to repel the 257 VMI cadets. General a gap in the Confederate center, position, we would have almost 1st West Virginia Light Artillery, the threat. The Virginia Military Breckinridge lamented, Put the directly inside Jacob Bushong’s been exterminated. was heavily engaged during the Institute’s Cadet Corps marched boys in…and may God forgive me fruit orchard. The march was Even the cadet’s command- final phases of the May 15, 1864, from their Lexington classrooms for the order. Lieutenant Colonel very costly. A single shell killed er, Lieutenant Colonel Scott battle and lost three guns to the to join Breckinridge and his army Confederates. of 4,500 veterans. The two armies On that rainy Sunday after- met at New Market on May 15, noon, literally hundreds of dead- 1864. ly iron missiles rent the air over By mid-morning Breckinridge 1818 House forensic investigation–April 2019 (Impact zone in chalk circle, center, 2nd story) Battle of New Market map. September 2019 Civil War News 13 and the boughs of a large tree… were all stretched out and sway- ing towards us. I believed I was bound to get killed[.] Whilst ly- ing here with the air literally filled with Yankee missiles, each one…seemed to miss me by only a scant sixteenth of an inch. Even the soldiers in Sigel’s army were awed by the destruc- tive power of their guns. J. N. Waddell of the 12th West Virginia Infantry wrote, Carlin’s Battery… Bushong Farm panoramic photograph. was just above us on a knoll and was sending shells over our several Union prisoners and a modernized with clapboarding to Bushong Farm Orchard ca. 1910. heads with terrible effect into the cannon from Von Kleiser’s 30th match the new house. Shipp, recorded the fury in his ranks of these boys. Lieutenant NY Battery. The cost for that vic- For the family whose farm official report, …having passed Colonel William Lincoln, an of- tory was also very high. They had been at the storm’s center, Bushong’s house, a mile or more ficer with the 34th Massachusetts lost five students killed and 47 The Bushong’s mended fences, beyond New Market, and still Infantry, was so impressed by the wounded, with five more dying went back to work, and eventu- to the left of the main road, the Union artillery, he later wrote, We from their wounds in the follow- ally opened a tourist home in the enemy’s batteries, at 250 or 300 poured a rapid and well directed ing days. Six of the fallen cadets 1930’s called Battlefield House yards, opened upon us with can- fire into the enemy; which aided are still buried on the campus of to cater to the increasing flood of ister and case shot…the fire was by the heavy enfilading fire of our the Virginia Military Institute. visitors. Guests stayed in the old withering. It seemed impossible artillery, checked his advance. Life after a storm, whether house, slept on their beds, and that any living creature could es- For a moment he staggered, ap- from a natural source or from bat- were regaled with stories of the cape; and here we sustained our peared to give way, and the day tle, takes time and energy to re- battle over supper in the dining heaviest loss, a great many being seemed ours. pair. The Bushong buildings were room. This ensured that the bat- wounded and numbers knocked Noting the confusion in the tlefield and the historic house sur- down, stunned and temporarily Confederate line, Sigel ordered a vived for another generation, but disabled. counterattack. The infantry charge that future was unsure. One of the most interesting lurched forward, awkwardly and On April 27, 1942, the Bushong accounts of the Union artillery ineffective. Anticipating the re- Farm was sold. This historic prop- bombardment comes from Cadet sult of his failed charge, Sigel be- erty made famous by the battle N. B. Noland, who was in the or- gan to withdraw his artillery. and the VMI cadets seventy-eight chard that afternoon. He wrote, I With his line reinforced and years earlier would need anoth- noticed just in front of my com- Federal cannon fire reduced, er preservation champion, and pany an orchard and a dwelling Breckinridge sensed his moment he would come from an unlike- house…it was about here that the had come. Into the Federal fire ly place. On August 4, 1944, Mr. enemy’s fire was most destruc- marched the gray-clad soldiers. George R. Collins, VMI Class of tive[.] We went through the yard Only a few yards separated the 1911, bought the old Bushong very close to the house [and] armies when the blue line broke. Farm and 120 ¼ acres. His sin- were ordered to lie down behind General Sigel staged a rapid gle estate started the New Market Excavated U.S. 3-inch the remnant of a worm-fence, retreat north to Strasburg, leav- Battlefield State Historical Park Hotchkiss canister with its iron about two rails high. The fire was ing the field and the Valley to and enabled significant resto- canister balls exposed. These furious at this time…I saw piec- General Breckinridge’s army 1818 House. ration efforts at the Bushong canister shot are similar to es of paper caught up and swept and the exuberant VMI Cadets.
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