Isaac Andrew Bushong and his wife Sarah Ann 'Sallie' SWANK Bushong are both born the grandchildren of "Pennsylvania Dutch" families (Boschung & Schwenk, both Swiss surnames speaking Swiss-German language) that migrated into the Shenandoah Valley less than a decade after the victorious American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783. In the year 1791, Isaac's grandfather Henry W. Bushong, Sr. migrated south from their first family farmstead located in Lancaster Co, PA to patent his own 260 acre farmstead just north of New Market, Shenandoah Co, VA.

Isaac was born the son of Henry 'Harry' Bushong, Jr. and Catherine BREW Bushong being raised on his father's own farmstead in Staunton, VA while Isaac's uncle Jacob Bushong and wife Sarah STRICKLER Bushong took deed and worked their grandfather's farmstead in New Market, VA. Like all of Virginia and the Nation, our family was swept into conflict during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. Soon the freshly plowed wheat field of the Bushong Farmstead was a battle field, site of 'The Battle of New Market, 1864'.

Written record from eyewitness accounts of that battle stated, "....Soon the full force of Union General Sigel's army poured into the Shenandoah Valley....The battle raged for hours, with cadets (VMI) streaming on both sides of the Bushong farmhouse into the fray....The Bushong family at first remained below in the basement, but as casualties mounted soon they were upstairs preparing to receive the dead and dying. It mattered little whether the wounded wore gray or blue, the Bushong family took them in. It would be weeks before the last of the wounded would leave the once-idyllic farm, but the bloodstains on the wooden floors are still visible today. There has long been speculation that the kindness of the Bushong's toward the Union soldiers accounts for the fact that the Bushong barn was left virtually alone in being spared when Union General Philip Sheridan later wreaked havoc in the valley. The Bushong name, which graces the records of Reformed, Lutheran, Quaker, and Baptist churches throughout Pennsylvania and the West is likewise a part of the history of Shenandoah Valley churches."

Just two months prior to The Battle of New Market, Isaac Bushong thankfully returned home to his wife and children after being drafted into service during the war. Today his grandfather's land is a National Historic Landmark conserved as 'Bushong Farm'. Their historic buildings and working farm are the grounds of New Market Battlefield State Historical Park and the Virginia Museum of the Civil War; all being cared for by the Virginia Military Institute.

www.vmi.edu/vmcw/Explore/10737422098/


The Culpeper News.
Culpeper County, Virginia
03 Dec 1909. Page 5, Column 2.

"Col. Isaac A. Bushong has passed away at his home near Archie, VA on Monday at 9 p.m., aged 86. Col. Bushong was at Harper's Ferry at the time of John Brown's raid and in 1861 organized Company A of the 58th Virginia Infantry. The writer remembers seeing Col. Bushong at the head of his regiment, a picture of a soldier, his long flowing beard, his erect and commanding carriage gave him the appearance of a model commander as he was. Col. Bushong was conservative in politics, a good pious guarding of his children and grand-children, a good citizen and will be much missed in his neighborhood where he has for many years resided, a consistent member of the Lutheran Church and a true Confederate Soldier was he."

Isaac and Sarah's children (not listed below)

1. Mary E.C. BUSHONG Hawkins b.1845
- married Muscoe Livingstone Hawkins
2. Samuel Marion Bushong b.1848
3. Emma Grace A.V. BUSHONG Stewart
- married James R. Stewart
4. Sarah Amanda L.C. BUSHONG b.1859
- never married
5. Edward Walter Bushong b.1866