Battle of New Market
May 15, 1864 · New Market, Virginia
Result Confederate victory
15 May 1864 battle remembered as the only time in American history a school's student body fought as an organized combat unit. Confederate general John C. Breckinridge ordered cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, some no older than 15, to join an attack on the Union lines. The episode became central to the Institute's myths and traditions.
