Col. J. Stoddard Johnston, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 9.1, Kentucky
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[186] to move at once with all his available force to Staunton for the defense of that point, and defend it against Sigel, who was moving up the Shenandoah valley. Breckinridge started immediately with his two infantry brigades for a long march over the mountains, and arrived at Staunton on the 11th, calling out the militia of Augusta county and the cadets of the Virginia military institute at Lexington. It was generally supposed that he would fortify and await Sigel's advance, but on the 13th he put his forces, numbering about 3,500, including a small cavalry force under General Imboden, in motion to meet Sigel, who was reported about fifty miles northward.

On the evening of the 14th he had reached a point within nine miles of New Market, near which and to the north he learned that Sigel was camped. At one o'clock that night, the weather being rainy, he marched north, and at daylight on the morning of Sunday, May 15th, his infantry was in line of battle just south of New Market, almost within cannon shot of Sigel before that officer knew there was any infantry force between him and Staunton. There was little delay for preliminaries, and by noon Sigel, who had about twice the number of troops led by Breckinridge, had been forced to fall back beyond New Market, where he took a strong position on the crest of a hill from which there was a gentle slope of nearly a mile through wheat-fields and blue-grass pastures. General Breckinridge was reluctant to put the cadets, of whom there were 225, into the battle and at first proposed to detach them as rear guard to the trains, but they pleaded so earnestly that he finally yielded and gave them the post of honor in the center, between the two brigades, as a color line for them to dress by. He had but one line, but his flanks were protected by a bluff bank of the Shenandoah on the left, and swampy ground at the right. From the nature of the topography, he could not use artillery directly, but ascertaining by reconnoitering that he could move it to an eligible position on the right and