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Rude's Hill is a hill in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. It was named after the Danish Lutheran minister Anders Rudolph Rude, who arriving in the USA in 1836 had married the widow to the Steenbergen plantation.
Map of Rudes Hill, 1, VA 22844, USA
The hill was an important site in the American Civil War. In April 1862, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson took up his quarter's there in 1862 during the Shenandoah Valley campaign. During fighting, pastor Rude's wife and daughter were unintended victims, and the property suffered heavy damage, so Rev. Rude left in the autumn. In Texas he became a minister and Professor, but this hill continued to reflect his family name.
Later in November 1864 the hill overlooking the North Branch of the Shenandoah River and on an important road again became a battlefield, as divisions of Philip Sheridan's Union cavalry pursued the confederate General Jubal A. Early. Having routed Early, Sheridan employed schorched earth tactics and destroyed the economic infrastructure of the Shenandoah Valley. The manor was looted by Union troops, one of them was another Dane, Ole R. Olsen. Ultimately, Union troops encamped on the property and erected several buildings, including a hospital, all of which were demolished by 1870.
Today the crest of the hill contains several memorial markers of civil War events at Rude's Hill.