Battle of New Market in the Civil War

Battle of New Market in the Civil War The Battle of New Market occurred on May 15, 1864, during the American Civil War (1861-1865). In March 1864, President Abraham Lincoln elevated Major General Ulysses S. Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all Union armies. Having previously directed forces in the Western Theater, he decided to give operational command of the armies in this region to Major General William T. Sherman and moved his headquarters east to travel with Major General George G. Meades Army of the Potomac. Grants Plan Unlike the Union campaigns of the preceding years which sought to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Grants primary goal was the destruction of General Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia. Recognizing that the loss of Lees army would lead to the inevitable fall of Richmond as well as would likely sound the death knell of the rebellion, Grant intended to strike the Army of Northern Virginia from three directions. This was made possible by the Unions superiority in manpower and equipment. First, Meade was to cross the Rapidan River east of Lees position at Orange Court House, before swinging west to engage the enemy. With this thrust, Grant sought to bring Lee to battle outside of the fortifications the Confederates had constructed at Mine Run. To the south, Major General Benjamin Butlers Army of the James was to advance up the Peninsula from Fort Monroe and threaten Richmond, while to the west Major General Franz Sigel laid waste to the resources of the Shenandoah Valley. Ideally, these secondary thrusts would draw troops away from Lee, weakening his army as Grant and Meade attacked. Sigel in the Valley Born in Germany, Sigel had graduated from the Karlsruhe Military Academy in 1843, and five years later served Baden during the Revolution of 1848. With the collapse of the revolutionary movements in Germany, he had fled first to Great Britain and then to New York City. Settling in St. Louis, Sigel became active in local politics and was an ardent abolitionist. With the start of the Civil War, he received a commission more based on his political views and influence with the German immigrant community than his martial ability.   After seeing fighting in the west at Wilsons Creek and Pea Ridge in 1862, Sigel was ordered east and held commands in the Shenandoah Valley and the Army of the Potomac. Through poor performance and an unlikable disposition, Sigel was relegated to unimportant posts in 1863. The following March, due to his political influence, he obtained command of the  Department of West Virginia. Tasked with eliminating the Shenandoah Valleys ability to provide Lee with food and supplies, he moved out with around 9,000 men from Winchester in early May. Confederate Response As Sigel and his army moved southwest through the valley towards their goal of Staunton, Union troops initially encountered little resistance. To meet the Union threat, Major General John C. Breckinridge hastily assembled what Confederate troops were available in the area. These were organized into two infantry brigades, led by Brigadier Generals  John C. Echols and Gabriel C. Wharton, and a cavalry brigade led by Brigadier General John D. Imboden. Additional units were added to Breckinridges small army including the 257-man Corps of Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute. Armies Commanders: Union Major General Franz Sigel6,275 men Confederate Major General John C. Breckinridge4,090 men Making Contact Though they had marched 80 miles in four days to join his army, Breckinridge hoped to avoid using the cadets as some were as young as 15. Advancing towards each other, Sigel and Breckinridges forces met near New Market on May 15, 1864. Deploying on a ridge north of the town, Sigel pushed skirmishers forward. Spotting the Union troops, Breckinridge opted to take the offensive. Forming his men south of New Market, he placed the VMI cadets in his reserve line. Moving out around 11:00 AM, the Confederates advanced through thick mud and cleared New Market within ninety minutes. The Confederates Attack Pressing on, Breckinridges men encountered a line of Union skirmishers just north of the town. Sending Brigadier General John Imbodens cavalry around to the right, Breckinridges infantry attacked while the horsemen fired on the Union flank. Overwhelmed, the skirmishers fell back to the main Union line. Continuing their attack, the Confederates advanced upon Sigels troops. As the two lines neared, they began exchanging fire. Taking advantage of their superior position, the Union forces began to thin out the Confederate line. With Breckinridges line starting to waver, Sigel decided to attack. With a gap opening in his line, Breckinridge, with great reluctance, ordered the VMI cadets forward to close the breach. Coming into line as the 34th Massachusetts began their attack, the cadets braced themselves for the onslaught. Fighting with Breckinridges seasoned veterans, the cadets were able to repel the Union thrust. Elsewhere, a thrust by Union cavalry led by Major General Julius Stahel was turned back by Confederate artillery fire. With Sigels attacks faltering, Breckinridge ordered his entire line forward. Surging through the mud with the cadets in the lead, the Confederates assaulted Sigels position, breaking his line and forcing his men from the field. Aftermath The defeat at New Market cost Sigel 96 killed, 520 wounded, and 225 missing. For Breckinridge, losses were around 43 killed, 474 wounded, and 3 missing. During the fighting, ten of the VMI cadets were killed or mortally wounded. Following the battle, Sigel withdrew to Strasburg and effectively left the Valley in Confederate hands. This situation would largely remain until Major General Philip Sheridan captured the Shenandoah for the Union later that year.

Living Fossil Plants - Ginkgo, Metasequoia, Wollemia

Living Fossil Plants - Ginkgo, Metasequoia, Wollemia A living fossil  is a species that is known from fossils looking just the way it looks today. Among animals, the most famous living fossil is probably the  coelacanth. Here are three living fossils from the plant kingdom. Afterward, we will point out why living fossil is no longer a good term to use. Ginkgo, Ginkgo biloba Ginkgoes are a very old line of plants, their earliest representatives being found in rocks of Permian age  some 280 million years old. At times in the geologic past, they have been widespread and abundant, and the dinosaurs surely fed upon them. The fossil species Ginkgo adiantoides, indistinguishable from the modern ginkgo, is found in rocks as old as Early Cretaceous (140 to 100 million years ago), which appears to have been the ginkgos heyday. Fossils of ginkgo species are found throughout the northern hemisphere in rocks dating from Jurassic to Miocene times. They disappear from North America by the Pliocene and vanish from Europe by the Pleistocene. The ginkgo tree is well-known today as a street tree and ornamental tree, but for centuries it appears to have been extinct in the wild. Only cultivated trees survived, in Buddhist monasteries in China, until they were planted across Asia starting about a thousand years ago. Ginkgo Photo GalleryGrowing GinkgoesLandscaping with Ginkgoes Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides The dawn redwood is a conifer that sheds its leaves every year, unlike its cousins the coast redwood and giant sequoia. Fossils of closely related species date from late in the Cretaceous  and occur all over the northern hemisphere. Their most famous locality is probably on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Arctic, where stumps and leaves of Metasequoia sit still unmineralized from the warm Eocene Epoch some 45 million years ago. The fossil species Metasequoia glyptostroboides was first described in 1941. Its fossils were known before that, but they were confused with those of the true redwood genus Sequoia and the swamp cypress genus Taxodium for more than a century. M. glyptostroboides was thought to be long extinct. The latest fossils, from Japan, dated from the early Pleistocene (2 million years ago). But a living specimen in China was found a few years later, and now this critically endangered species is thriving in the horticultural trade. Only about 5000 wild trees remain. Recently, Chinese researchers described a single isolated specimen in Hunan province whose leaf cuticle differs from all other dawn redwoods and exactly resembles the fossil species. They suggest that this tree is truly the living fossil and that the other dawn redwoods have evolved from it by mutation. The science, along with much human detail, is presented by Qin Leng in a recent issue of Arnoldia. Qin also reports vigorous conservation efforts in Chinas Metasequoia Valley. Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis The ancient conifers of the southern hemisphere are in the araucaria plant family, named for the Arauco region of Chile where the monkey-puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) lives. It has 41 species today (including the Norfolk Island pine, kauri pine and bunya-bunya), all of them scattered among the continental fragments of Gondwana: South America, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Ancient araucarians forested the globe in Jurassic times. In late 1994, a ranger in Australias Wollemi National Park in the Blue Hills found a strange tree in a small, remote canyon. It was found to match fossil leaves going back 120 million years in Australia. Its pollen grains were an exact match to the fossil pollen species ​Dilwynites, found in Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand in rocks as old as Jurassic. The Wollemi pine is known in three small groves, and all specimens today are as genetically alike as twins. Hard-core gardeners and plant fanciers are very interested in the Wollemi pine, not just for its rarity but because it has beautiful foliage. Look for it at your local progressive arboretum. Why Living Fossil Is a Poor Term The name living fossil is unfortunate in some ways. The dawn redwood and Wollemi pine present the best case for the term: recent fossils that appear identical, not just similar, to a living representative. And the survivors were so few that we may not have enough genetic information to explore their evolutionary history in depth. But most living fossils dont match that story. The plant group of cycads is an example that used to be in the textbooks (and may still be). The typical cycad in yards and gardens is the sago palm, and it had supposedly been unchanged since Paleozoic time. But today there are about 300 species of cycad, and genetic studies show that most are only a few million years old. Besides genetic evidence, most living fossil species differ in small details from todays species: shell ornamentation, numbers of teeth, configuration of bones and joints. Although the line of organisms had a stable body plan that succeeded in a certain habitat and lifeway, its evolution never stopped. The idea that the species became evolutionarily stuck is the main thing wrong about the notion of living fossils. There is a similar term used by paleontologists for fossil types that disappear from the rock record, sometimes for millions of years, and then appear again: Lazarus taxa, named for the man that Jesus raised from the dead. A Lazarus taxon is not literally the same species, found in rocks millions of years apart. Taxon refers to any level of taxonomy, from the species through the genus and family up to the kingdom. The typical Lazarus taxon is a genus- a group of species- so that matches what we now understand about living fossils.