Rude's Hill
Rude's Hill is a 981 foot hill[1] just outside of the town of Mt. Jackson in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States, primarily known because it was a strategically placed elevation on which many Civil War events occurred. It was named after the Danish Lutheran minister Anders Rudolph Rude,[2] who arrived in the USA in 1836 and married the widow of the Steenbergen plantation. They inhabited a house on the hill called "Locust Grove" which dates to 1792, according to county records.[3] As of July 2014 when the property was for sale, "Locust Grove" was in severely neglected condition with several ungainly exterior modifications over the years, but was still standing.
Rude's Hill was an important site in the American Civil War, occupying a high point overlooking the key Valley Turnpike where is passes through a point between Smith Creek on the east and the North Fork of the Shenandoah River on the western side. Rude's Hill is the first elevation on that route beyond the Meems bottomland on the south end of the town of Mt. Jackson. It was a particularly defensible high ground because the only practical enemy approach to Rude's Hill from the north was via single bridges spanning Mill Creek and the Shenandoah's north fork, and then an enemy wuld need to cross the flat Meems Bottom, commanded by Rude's Hill beyond. And also because if required to retreat, a force could withdraw from Rude's Hill through mountain passes of the Massanutten Range. Because of its strategic placement and high ground location and the fact the area had so much action between 1862 and 1865, Rude's Hill figured prominently in Civil War history.
References
- https://mapcarta.com/21912026
- Pastor Claus Laurits Clausen: Banebryder for den Norske og Danske Kirke i Amerika. Første skandinavisk Feltpræst Kirkehistorisk Bidrag. 1921. Rasmus Andersen
- https://www.oldhousedreams.com/2014/07/10/1792-mount-jackson-va/
- http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/visit/signature-sites/shenandoah-page-counties-sites/jackson-at-rudes-hill/
- http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/a-chronology-of-armed-conflict-in-the-shenandoah-valley/
- https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/defiance-valley
- https://stonesentinels.com/less-known/mt-jackson/jackson-rudes-hill-wm/
- http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh12-1.html
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/henkel/CivilWarShenandoah.pdf
- https://stonesentinels.com/less-known/mt-jackson/cavalry-engagement-a26/
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/henkel/CivilWarShenandoah.pdf
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/henkel/CivilWarShenandoah.pdf
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/henkel/CivilWarShenandoah.pdf
- http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh12-1.html
- A guidebook to Virginia's historical markers. John S. Salmon, Margaret T. Peters, Virginia. Dept. of Historic Resources. University of Virginia Press. 1994
- https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/henkel/CivilWarShenandoah.pdf
- https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3881sm.gcwh0008/?sp=43
- http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/a-chronology-of-armed-conflict-in-the-shenandoah-valley/
- https://www.shenandoahatwar.org/the-execution-of-summers-and-koontz-a-post-war-tragedy/
- https://shenandoahcivilwarhistory.blog/2018/11/25/confederate-e-r-and-r-i-p-at-mount-jackson/
- "Kalundborg og Omegns Museum - West-Zealanders in the American Civil War". Kalmus.dk. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- The Valley Campaign of 1862 as Revealed in Letters of Sandie Pendleton. W. G. Bean and Sandie Pendleton. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 78, No. 3 (Jul., 1970), pp. 326-364
- http://www.shenandoahcountyhistoricalsociety.org/PDF/LutheranChurchAA.pdf
- "ANDERS R. RUDE, Circa 1812, Copenhagen". Genforum.genealogy.com. 2001-05-21. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- "RootsWeb: RUDE-L RUDE, ANDERS RUDOLPH, b 1812 in Denmark, d 1883 in Texas". Archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- "Rude'S Hill, Virginia". Fortunecity.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- "Rude's Hill Marker". Hmdb.org. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- "Civil War historical marker at Rudes Hill, south of Mount Jackson,Virginia". Shenandoah.stonesentinels.com. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- "Historical marker for Rude's Hill Action in between Mount Jackson and New Market, Virginia". Shenandoah.stonesentinels.com. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- "Wayside marker about Rude's Hill - Knoll of Refuge and Attack, near Mount Jackson, Virginia". Shenandoah.stonesentinels.com. Retrieved 2012-02-04.