The Breadbasket of the Confederacy
Harrisonburg and Rockingham County played a significant role in the Civil War. Harrisonburg was situated at the cross roads of two major highways, the Valley Turnpike (modern-day Rt. 11) and the Rockingham Turnpike (modern-day Rt. 33). It was also just 50 miles north of a huge Confederate rail and supply center in Staunton. At the time, Rockingham County was one of the most prosperous agricultural counties in the nation, thus it garnered the nickname "the breadbasket of the Confederacy."
Hardesty-Higgins House Visitor Center
During the dawn of the Civil War, Isaac Hardesty played host to Union General Nathaniel Banks for three days in May of 1862. Hardesty was a Union sympathizer and took in the General, feeding him and his staff and providing forage for their horses
Harrisonburg-Rockingham Civil War Orientation Center
The Orientation Center offers the stories of individuals, battles, and campaigns through film and interpretation. You'll find additional information in our Shenandoah At War guide as well as in our other resources.
The Valley Turnpike Museum
Model of 1862 Harrisonburg and Engine 199
The Valley Turnpike (modern-day U.S. 11), provided a north-south corridor for the movement of Confederate troops to threaten the Potomac River line. In 1862, Harrisonburg was a stop along the Valley Turnpike, where Stonewall Jackson's Army Corps of Engineers transported engine 199 along the route using 40 horses.
Virginia Quilt Museum
E.T. Warren-Sipe House
The home was built in 1856 for Edward Tiffin Harrison Warren and his bride, Virginia Magruder. During the Civil War, Warren served in the 10th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regulars. He was killed in May of 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness. It is said that the ghost of a Confederate soldier has been seen standing at the top of the center hall staircase in the house. Perhaps of a young soldier, Joseph Latimer, who was wounded at Gettysburg, and died of his injuries in the house.
Woodbine Cemetery
The cemetery was founded in 1850 and has become a place of beauty, pride, and local history. It contains a Confederate soldier burial section and monument.
Turner Ashby Monument
Dedicated June 6, 1898 by the Turner Ashby Chapter 162 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the stone monument marks the spot where Confederate General Ashby died at the Battle of Harrisonburg.
Historical records state that on June 6, 1862, while commanding General "Stonewall" Jackson's cavalry, Ashby's horse was shot out from beneath him. Rising to his feet, Ashby ordered his men to charge before being fatally wounded by Federal forces under General John Fremont.
Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign
"Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic"
In his effort to draw Union troops from McClellan's drive toward Richmond, Stonewall Jackson tied up elements of three separate armies in a bold campaign of swift marching and countermarching that ended on the farm fields around the villages of Cross Keys and Port Republic.
Sheridan's 1864 Shenandoah Campaign
"Military Maneuvers and The Burning"
During 1864, Federal troops targeted the region's civilian economy. In the fall, as the Union solidified its control of the Valley, it passed from village to village, setting farms and mills ablaze and destroying the breadbasket of the Confederacy, an operation that would foreshadow Union General William T. Sherman's infamous "March to the Sea" in Georgia later in the year.
Stay the Night and Spend Day 2 at the
New Market Battlefield State Historical Park
Where 257 Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute made the difference between victory and defeat...
