54th Pennsylvania Infantry - New Market VA
N 38° 39.925 W 078° 39.718
17S E 703416 N 4282242
The only Pennsylvania statue at a Virginia battlefield stands at New Market in memory of the 54th.
Waymark Code: WMBHCQ
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 05/22/2011
Views: 6
The 54th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was formed in Harrisburg, PA at Camp Curtin in 1861. The following year they were sent to Washington, D.C. They were assigned to guard the B&O Railroad between Martinsburg, VA and Cumberland, MD. In the spring of 1864, Union Gen. U. S. Grant sent Maj. Gen Franz Sigel with 10,000 troops into the Shenandoah Valley to cut off railroad supply lines to the Confederate army and secure the strategic Valley Pike. The 54th was attached to Sigel's expedition from Martinsburg, WV to New Market, VA. On May 15, when Sigel's forces met the Confederate troops led by Gen. John Breckinridge at the
Battle of New Market, the 54th was one of three infantry regiments on Sigel's left flank. When the Union cavalry charge was repelled by Confederate artillery, the infantry was ordered to attack. The 54th met heavy fire and were forced to retreat at 'Bloody Cedars', so named because of the devastating losses the regiment suffered on the cedar-covered hillside.
In 1905, veterans of the battle erected a monument on the New Market battlefield where the pursuing Confederates were stopped and the Federals were able to successfully retreat to safety. It faces the old Valley Pike.
The only PA Civil War memorial in VA with a statue, the inscription on the base reads:
ERECTED
TO THE MEMORY
OF THE HEROIC DEAD
OF THE 54TH REGT.
PA. VET. VOL. INFTY.
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
IN DEFENCE OF THEIR
COUNTRY
-----------------------
1861-1865
A brass plaque mounted in front of the monument reads:
AT CEREMONIES CONDUCTED 16 SEPTEMBER 1984,
TITLE TO THIS MONUMENT WAS TRANSFERRED FROM
THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA TO THE NEW
MARKET BATTLEFIELD PARK. THE MONUMENT WAS
ORIGINALLY DEDICATED ON 25 OCTOBER 1905 TO THE
MEN OF THE 54TH PENNSYLVANIA INFANTRY. IT NOW
SERVES AS A MEMORIAL TO ALL WHO FOUGHT AT THE
BATTLE OF NEW MARKET ON 15 MAY 1864.
The 54th PA Monument is one of two monuments erected by veterans at the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.
Also see: New Market Battlefield State Historical Park and Hall of Valor Museum: The Bloody Cedars - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites
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