Excerpt from The Battle of New Market: May 15, 1864<br><br>When Grant undertook the execution of his plan to take Richmond, in the spring of 1864, he assigned Major - General Franz Sigel, commanding the Department of West Virginia, the task of overrunning the Valley with the men at his dis posal. This rich section had been regarded as the granary of Lee's Army throughout the war, and many futile efforts had been made to gain complete possession of it.<br><br>Imboden learned early in the spring of Sigel's orders, which were to press up the Valley with about men, with a view to seizing Staunton and Lynchburg, while Crook with a some what larger force was to make a raid through Southwest Vir ginia and destroy the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad as he moved eastward towards Lynchburg, where it was expected the two columns would form a junction.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.