Rude’s Hill was an important location on the Valley Pike in Virginia’s Shenendoah Valley throughout the war. Here a monument and four markers, all within a few feet from each other, refer to events in 1862, 1863 and 1864, showing the importance of this strategic communications corridor. (see map at bottom for location)
Rude’s Hill historical marker
The Rude’s Hil marker was erected in 1927 by the Shenandoah Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It is one of 59 commemorating Virginia Civil War battlefields created during the 1920’s by the Battlefield Markers Association. They were the first highway markers in the State of Virginia.
Text from the marker:
Rude’s Hill
Stonewall Jackson’s camp ground
April 2–16, 1862
His headquarters at the foot of this hill.
Colonel John Francis Neff, Commander
33rd Regiment, Stonewall Brigade,
born and buried near here.
Erected by The Shenandoah Chapter, U.D.C.
1927
Rude’s Hill Action A27 Virginia historical marker
Text from the marker:
A27
Rude’s Hill Action
Rude’s Hill was reached by two divisions of Sheridan’s Union cavalry following the Confederate General Jubal A. Early, on November 22, 1864. Early promptly took position on the hill to oppose them. The cavalry, charging across the flats, were repulsed in a sharp action and fell back northward.
Erected 1927 by the Virginia Conservation Commission
Cavalry Engagement A26 Virginia historical marker
Text from the marker:
A26
Cavalry Engagement
On 15 Nov. 1863, Col. William H. Boyd reconnoitered
with a Federal cavalry and artillery detachment
south from Charlestown (in present-day W.Va.)
toward New Market. The next day, the force
encountered Maj. Robert White’s cavalry
command just north of Mount Jackson. White’s
Confederates retreated fighting through the town
and crossed the Shenandoah River bridge to
Rude’s Hill. Realizing that White’s artillery
could sweep the bridge, Boyd withdrew to a
bivouac two miles north of Woodstock, pursued
by Capt. Thomas S. Davis’s cavalry company,
and soon returned to Charlestown. Losses
from the Mount Jackson engagement were
light on both sides.
Erected 1998 by Department of Historic Resources.
Rude’s Hill – Knoll of Refuge and Attack wayside marker
Text from the marker:
Rude’s Hill
Knoll of Refuge and Attack
— 1964 Valley Campaign —
The spring of 1864 opened with United States forces pressing Confederate armies defending fronts scattered throughout the Confederacy. Union Gen. Franz Sigel was assigned the task of securing the Shenandoah Valley; always one of the Civil War’s most hotly contested areas. On the last day of April 1864, Sigel, with 9,000 men and 28 guns, marched south from Martinsburg. By May 11, Sigel’s advance ran into Confederates posted at Rude’s Hill under the command of a Maryland Confederate, Capt. T. Sturgis Davis. Davis and his commander, Gen. John Imboden, were able to delay the Federal advance until Gen. John C. Breckinridge arrived at New Market with his small army, including the Virginia Military Institute Cadet Battalion. On the eve of his May 15th success at New Market, Breckinridge advanced his artillery to the crest of this hill where they shelled Sigel’s disorganized, retreating Federals.
Rude’s Hill was again the site of Confederate refuge during the days following their demoralizing and humiliating defeat at the Battle of Fisher’s Hill, September 22, 1864. Gen. Jubal Early deployed his Confederate infantry into line of battle along the crest of the hill to check the Federal advance before retiring on to Brown’s Gap in the Blue Ridge.
On Oct. 3. 1864, the famous partisan ranger, Capt. John H. McNeill, led a command of approximately 50 men in a predawn attack against a Federal detachment guarding the Shenandoah River bridge. Mortally wounded in this attack, McNeill was carried by his comrades to “Locust Grove,” formerly the Rude home, where he was cared for until removed south to Harrisonburg where he died. During his stay at Locust Grove his disguised identity was uncovered by Gen. Philip Sheridan, now the Federal commander, who reported “McNeill was mortally wounded and fell into our hands. This was fortunate, as he was the most daring and dangerous of all the bushwackers in this section of the country.”
Captions to portraits:
At top right, Confederate commanders John McNeill, John E. Breckenridge, and Jubal A. Early
At Bottom left, Union commanders Franz Sigel and Philip Sheridan