Hi, Hallmans, "Wagontracker" on my Rosenberger List sent me this interesting piece of history from his family. I posted it to my R. List. I thought Hallmans would find it interesting, too, so here it is below. Faith AND NOW WE KNOW.... Our Family Farm was situated 1.5 miles east of New Market, along the north side of U. S. Route 211 (formerly known as the New Market-Sperryville Turnpike). Smith Creek flowed northward towards its' junction with the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, some six miles distant. Being born and reared on this property (1920s through the 1940s), I occasionally found Yankee uniform buttons, Minnie balls/bullets, an 1862 U. S. quarter, uncovered a Sharps carbine while plowing, an noted an unexploded artillery shell in the forks of a tree situated about fifteen feet from the rear corner of my Grandfather's house. I often wondered how these items came to be on our farm. Local residents said that a Federal unit had encamped along the old Turnpike several days during the Civil War. The gun, quarter, bullets, and uniform buttons were of Civil War vintage but I could not fully accept that they were left as a result of an encampment. And now we know..... "The Battle of New Market" by William C. Davis published by Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1993, provided the answer. This book details the events leading up to, during, and after the Civil War battle in this section of southern Shenandoah County, Virginia. Mr. Davis describes how a Federal calvary unit of 300 men under Col. William Boyd crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains on May 13th, 1864, destroyed enemy supplies in Luray, and arrived in the New Market Gap (Massanutten Mountain, east of New Market). After scanning the Valley through the evening haze, the unit descended the west side of the mountain. The Confederates observed the enemy force and ambushed it just as it crossed Smith Creek. Federal casualties in killed, wounded, and missing totaled well over 100. While there was no mention of a Federal encampment in Mr. Davis's book, a large portion of this skirmish definitely involved our property. My Grandfather, L. Harper Zirkle, puchased the property from Captain William H. Rice who lost a leg during the War, and whose wooden leg my Brother discovered in the smokehouse loft in the 1970s. The Battle of New Market took place two days later, on May 15th, 1864, and resulted in a victory for the South. Franklin A. Zirkle April, 1994