Between Mount Jackson and New Market, Virginia is monument to Confederate Captain George Summers and Sergeant Newton Koontz along with a marker reproducing the monument’s inscriptions and a sign with additional information. A Virginia Historical marker adding to the story and a Civil War Trails wayside marker on the Battle of New Marker are just steps away.
Summers – Koontz monument
The monument’s inscription became worn over time, and a marker was placed in front of it that reproduces its text:
The monument in front of you replaced an existing wooden pillar.
The inscriptions on the monument read:
On the side facing you – east
Capt. Geo. W. Summers and Sergt. Newton Koontz
Company D 7th Virginia Cavalry
Were Here Executed on June 27, 1865
By order of Lt. Col. Huzzy 192d. O.V.M.I.
On the right side as you face the monument – North
Without the priviledge of any kind of trial they having been arrested at their homes in Page Co. brought here and shot.
On the left side as you face the monument – south
Erected in 1893 by friends under the supervision of Capt. T.J. Adams
On the rear as you face the monument – west
No inscription.
Text from the nearby sign:
The “Post – Appomattox Tragedy” Monument at the top of the path was erected in 1893.
The monument to Capt. Summers and Sgt. Koontz has been restored and opened to the public to preserve our heritage.
“Post-Appomattox Tragedy A69” Virginia historical marker
Text from the marker:
A69
Post-Appomattox
Tragedy
On 22 May 1865, after the Civil War ended.
Capt. George W. Summers, Sgt. I. Newton Koontz,
and two other armed veterans of Co. D,
7th Virginia Cavalry, robbed six Federal
cavalrymen of their horses near Woodstock.
The horses were returned the next day to
the 192d Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Rude’s Hill.
Despite assurances that all was forgiven,
Lt. Col. Cyrus Hussy, temporarily commanding
the 192nd, later ordered the men arrested.
The others escaped, but Summers and Koontz
were shot without trial here on 27 June.
Thirty years later, Capt. Thomas J. Adams
and friends erected the nearby monument
to commemorate their deaths.
Erected 1999 by the Department of Historic Resources.
DuPont at Rude’s Hill wayside marker
Text from the marker:
DuPont at Rude’s Hill
“I had to depend entirely upon myself … ”
— 1864 Valley Campaign —
Here Capt. Henry DuPont, commanding B Battery, 5th U.S. Artillery, protected Union Gen. Franz Sigel’s defeated army as it retreated after the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge had routed Sigel’s force that afternoon in an engagement made famous by the participation of 247 cadets from Virginia Military Institute. Arriving on the battlefield about two miles south of this location as the Federals began to withdraw, DuPont immediately deployed his six-gun battery to cover the infantry, placing his cannons across the Valley Turnpike (present-day U.S. Rte. 11). He positioned them in sections of two guns each, then “leap-frogged” each section north to cover the others as well as the army. DuPont shifted his battery several times, and his final combat position was north of the ridge above this site. He then moved the guns two miles farther north along the turnpike to Meems Bottom and burned the bridge across the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
Without DuPont’s artillery to cover the Federal retreat, Sigel would have suffered more casualties and endured a more disorganized withdrawal. Since Civil War commanders seldom planned for defeat, retreats often became disastrous routs. DuPont’s bold leadership typified the seasoned veteran that both sides developed during the war. As DuPont himself later wrote, “I had to depend entirely upon myself and did not receive a single order, either directly or indirectly, from any military superior.”
Caption to the photo:
Henry DuPont – Courtesy of VMI
Location of the monument and markers
The monument and markers are on the west side of the Valley Pike (U.S. 11) about 3 milles south of Mount Jackson and 3 miles north of New Market, Virginia. (38°41’33.8″N 78°38’59.8″W)