| Virginia, Fairfax — Efe Quality House |
| | Built 1930 Old Town Fairfax The home was built on top of the Manassas Gap Railway right-of-way which was the railway started before the Civil War. This railway construction was disbanded during the Civil War. The house was renovated in 1992 by Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan. — Map (db m6296) |
| Virginia, Manassas — CL-5 — Fifth Prince William County Courthouse |
| | The city of Manassas originated in 1852 at the junction of the Manassas Gap and the Orange & Alexandria railroads. During the Civil War the junction’s strategic significance led to two important battles nearby. After the war, as the community grew, citizens sought to move the county seat there from Brentsville. In 1872, a year before Manassas was incorporated as a town and again in 1888 referenda failed. A third referendum in 1892 succeeded. This Romanesque Revival courthouse designed by James . . . — Map (db m778) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Site of Manassas Junction |
| | One mile west was the junction of the Orange and Alexandria and Manassas Gap Railroad lines. The point became known as Manassas Junction. During the Civil War both sides used the area as a supply base. The site of the first depot was probably about one half mile to the east. The present structure was erected by the Southern Railroad in 1914, and is the third building on this site. For many years this depot was an important passenger and freight stop in commerce between markets of the north, south, and Shenandoah Valley. — Map (db m700) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — “Fortifications of Immense Strength” |
| | During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.
Early in May 1861, Col. Philip St. George . . . — Map (db m2463) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Wartime Manassas — “On to Richmond!” |
| | (During the Civil War, two railroads—the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria—intersected here. Manassas Junction was strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and for military transportation. Two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles documented the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction.)
On July 16, 1861, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. . . . — Map (db m2464) |
| Virginia (Fairfax County), Centreville — Manassas Gap Railroad Independent Line |
| | The roadbed of the Independent Line of the Manassas Gap Railroad ran through this area. Conceived to extend the Manassas Gap Railroad from Gainesville to Alexandria, grading on this part of the line began in September 1854. The nearby stone bridge abutments were built to carry tracks across Cub Run. Financial problems stopped the work in May 1857. In various places the roadbed provided shelter from attack and a route for troop movements during the Civil War. The Manassas Gap Railroad merged . . . — Map (db m655) |
| Virginia (Fairfax County), Fairfax — Manassas Gap Railroad Independent Line |
| | The Independent Line of the Manassas Gap Railroad ran through this area. Conceived to extend the Manassas Gap Railroad to Alexandria, grading on this part of the line began in September 1854. Financial problems stopped the work in May 1857. In various places the roadbed provided shelter from attack and a route for troop movements during the Civil War. The Manassas Gap Railroad merged with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in 1867. Track was never laid along the Independent Line. — Map (db m528) |
| Virginia (Fauquier County), Delaplaine — Piedmont Station |
| | By Train to Manassas.
Here at Piedmont Station (now Delaplane) trains were used for
the first time in history to move troops to impending battle.
On July 19, 1861 the fields surrounding this stop on the
Manassas Gap Railroad—which appeared then almost exactly as
they do today—were filled with thousands of volunteer soldiers, members of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army of the Shenandoah. A single steam locomotive was on hand to move the army to Manassas Junction, . . . — Map (db m641) |
| Virginia (Fauquier County), Delaplane — B-21 — Delaplane — (Formerly Piedmont Station) |
| | On July 19, 1861 Stonewall Jackson’s brigade of General Joseph E. Johnston’s corps marched to this station from Winchester. They crowded into freight and cattle cars and travelled to the 1st Battle of Manassas. The use of a railroad to carry more than ten thousand troops to the Manassas battlefield gave striking demonstration of the arrival of a new era in military transport and contributed significantly to the Confederate victory there. — Map (db m642) |
| Virginia (Fauquier County), Rectortown — Rectortown — McClellan’s Demise, Mosby’s Raffle — Mosby's Confederacy |
| | On November 5, 1862, several weeks after a tainted victory at Antietam, the Army of the Potomac's Commander-in-Chief Gen. George Brinton McClellan established his headquarters here. That same day President Abraham Lincoln wrote the orders relieving McClellan of command. On the snowy evening of November 7, Gen. C.P. Buckingham arrived at McClellan’s tent with Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Buckingham handed McClellan the dispatch. When he finished reading, McClellan declared, “General Burnside, . . . — Map (db m1173) |
| Virginia (Loudoun County), Purcellville — T 53 — Loudoun Branch, Manassas Gap Railroad |
| | The Virginia General Assembly approved plans for the Loudoun Branch (parts of which survive here) of the Manassas Gap Railroad on 8 March 1853, and construction soon began. The route extended 27 miles from just southwest of Chantilly on the main railroad's independent line to Purcellville, linking Alexandria with the farms of central Loudoun County. In 1856, stockholders voted to extend the railroad to Harpers Ferry to gain access to the lower Shenandoah Valley, but the financially overextended . . . — Map (db m7278) |
| Virginia (Prince William County), Manassas — “The Unfinished Railroad” |
| | These cuts and fills are what remain of the Independent Line of the Manassas Gap Railroad. The Independent Line was constructed in the mid-1850s to connect Gainesville, 5 miles to the west, with Alexandria, 25 miles to the east. After completing the grade, the Manassas Gap Railroad Company ran out of money. No tracks was ever laid. — Map (db m658) |
| Virginia (Prince William County), Manassas — The Rock Fight — Second Battle of Manassas — Day Three, August 30, 1862 |
| | Yankees were pinned down on the far side of the embankment, only ten yards away. After twenty minutes of continuous shooting, Confederates here were running out of ammunition. Frantically, they searched their dead and wounded comrades for cartridges. Others pried stones from the railroad grade and hurled them down on the enemy. Already shell-shocked, some bewildered Federals threw the stones right back.
The rock fight lasted only a minute. Reinforcements arrived and drove off the Federals. . . . — Map (db m903) |
| Virginia (Prince William County), Manassas — The Unfinished Railroad — Attacks on Jackson’s Line |
| | Second Battle of Manassas, Day Two, August 29, 1862. From the woods ahead came the sound of many men approaching. Out of a fog of musket smoke the enemy appeared, charging with fixed bayonets straight at this position.
You are standing behind the Unfinished Railroad, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson’s main line of resistance. One the long afternoon of August 29, wave after wave of Federal regiments assaulted this position, their dead and wounded piling up on the forward slope of . . . — Map (db m659) |
| Virginia (Prince William County), Manassas — The Unfinished Railroad |
| | Stonewall Jackson set up his defensive line along a two mile section of these cuts and fills, which were originally grading for the Independent Line of the Manassas Gap Railroad. The railroad, begun in the 1850’s, ran out of money after the roadbed had been built from Gainsville, 5 miles to the west, to Alexandria, 25 miles to the east. The coming of the war stopped whatever plans had been made to complete it. No track was ever laid over the grade. — Map (db m663) |
| Virginia (Shenandoah County), Strasburg — Civil War Strasburg — Strategic Intersection |
| | The railroad tracks before you follow the route of the Manassas Gap Railroad, which reached Strasburg from Washington, D.C., in 1854. The line was a vital link between the Shenandoah Valley and eastern markets. Strasburg became strategically important because of the intersection of the railroad with the Valley Turnpike (now U.S. Route 11).
In the summer of 1861, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s forces captured large quantities of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . . . — Map (db m2323) |
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