Orange and Alexandria Railroad

Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Strategic Target. , After the Civil War began in 1861, railroads became strategically important to transport troops and supplies. Beneath Lake Accotink Park access road, where you are now, lies the original Orange and Alexandria Railroad bed. It was chartered in 1849 and connected the port city of Alexandria with Gordonsville in Central Virginia. This part of the railroad fell under Union control early in the war, and the Confederates targeted it to disrupt the Union troop movements., On Dec. 28, 1862, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his troops raided nearby Burke Station, tearing up rails and cutting telegraph lines. Stuart also dispatched twelve men under Gen. Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee's nephew) to burn the wooden train trestle over Accotink Creek. The trestle was repaired and carried Union supplies for the duration of the war., Confederate Maj. John S. Mosby's Rangers and civilian sympathizers continued to conduct nighttime raids. They often concealed themselves in drainage culverts beneath the railbed while waiting to sabotage passing trains. After a derailment attempt failed on July 26, 1863, Union Gen. George G. Meade ordered civilian saboteurs severely punished. To protect the railroad, the Union's 155th New York and 4th Delaware Regiments camped along the tracks here., After his December 28, 1862, raid, Stuart, and his men stopped at Sully Plantation in western Fairfax County, now Sully Historic Site., [Sidebar:] , Ravensworth , The longest continuous stretch of surviving Orange and Alexandria Railroad bed in Fairfax County runs through Lake Accotink Park. The park occupies land that was originally part of the 22,000-acre Ravensworth tract that William Fitzhugh purchased in 1685. The Fitzhughs were related to the Lees, who often visited Ravensworth. Robert E. Lee's mother died there in 1829. Two years later, Robert E. Lee married Mary Randolph Custis, and the couple honeymooned at Ravensworth. Mary Custis Lee inherited Ravensworth after the war and moved there after her husband, Robert E. Lee, died in 1870. The couple's second son, William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee, inherited the tract on his mother's death in 1874. The house, built about 1796, burned in 1926.