American Civil War
The O&A was strategically important during the Civil War (1861–1865) and was arguably the most fought over railroad in Virginia. In connection with the Virginia Central, it was the only rail link that existed between the capitals at Washington, D.C., and Richmond. The importance of the link drew Union Army troops to the 1861 First Battle of Bull Run in an attempt to gain control of Manassas Junction. This important junction traded hands numerous time during the war. Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson took advantage of its importance by attacking it in the Battle of Manassas Station Operations to draw the Union into the 1862 Second Battle of Bull Run. The 1863 Battle of Brandy Station and Second Battle of Rappahannock Station were also fought near the railroad line.
Read more about this topic: Orange And Alexandria Railroad
Famous quotes containing the words american, civil and/or war:
“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)
“The lakes are something which you are unprepared for; they lie up so high, exposed to the light, and the forest is diminished to a fine fringe on their edges, with here and there a blue mountain, like amethyst jewels set around some jewel of the first water,—so anterior, so superior, to all the changes that are to take place on their shores, even now civil and refined, and fair as they can ever be.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My curse on plays
That have to be set up in fifty ways,
On the day’s war with every knave and dolt,
Theater business, management of men.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)