In the battle of New Market, which was fought along the northwestern edge of town, occurred an episode of the Civil war so remarkable as to equal the bravery of that of the three hundred Spartans. The V. M. I. Cadets, a battalion of boys, from fourteen to twenty years of age, was ordered from school at Lexington, Virginia, to join Breckenridge's forces. In this desperate crisis of the last months of the war, these brave lads reached New Market at night after a strenuous march of three days. "The early hours of the morning found them in battle line, where for several hours they held their position in spite of a galling fire from the infantry and a heavy destructive fire from the artillery. Just when the Union troops were contemplating a speedy victory at the most decisive moment of the battle, these gallant boys rose as a unit, and charging across an open wheat field, in spite of severe losses in killed and wounded, broke the Federal lines and turned what seemed to be a defeat into a victory." In this village lives the noble old lady who in those awful days of horror that knew no Red Cross organized the care of this boys' army and carried on the nursing and relief work. No wonder those brave lads called her the "Mother of the V. M. I." Her deeds of mercy shine forth like stars on a winter night. How many and delightful are the windings of the famous valley Pile beginning at Winchester! Through what fertile stretches of well cultivated land it leads you! The more serrated lines of the Alleghanies rise faint and blue on the western horizon; the lovely contour of the Blue Ridge is seen in the east while about half way down the valley rises that wonder of wonders, Old Massanutten. It may be an outcast among mountains, for the other ranges leave it severely alone. It is a short range and rises very abruptly from the valley being parallel to the other ranges. Its rough bouldered sides form a striking contrast to the other ranges of the valley. It is a strange, solitary range, drifted away from its brother companions in the beginning of time and was stranded there--a regular outcast of a mountain. Perhaps it is no outcast but was set apart by Nature in the early dawn of time. "It not only towers above the beautiful valley but draws itself haughtily away from the other hills as if it had a better origin than they."