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The Battle of New Market and Cadets of VMI with Sarah Kay Bierle
43m
Daz is joined by author and historian Sarah Kay Bierle to discuss the cadets of VMI and their involvement during the Battle of New Market which took place in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864.
The battle is primarily remembered today for being the only time in American history a school's student body was used as an organized combat unit. During the battle Confederate general John C. Breckinridge ordered cadets from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), some of them child soldiers no older than 15, to join an attack on the Union lines. The event has gone on to become central to many of the institute's myths and traditions.