The Centreville Military Railroad

Kurt eyed me warily. An avid Civil War relic hunter, he wasn't, at first, too keen to show me the remaining rail bed of the Centreville Military Railroad, lest I pull out some space-age metal detector and claim all the booty he'd failed to find over the years, but when I explained I was simply a reporter, his tone quickly changed. 

"You're standing in it," he informed me, which I appreciated, as it shortened my search.

The Centreville Military Railroad had the distinction of being the first railroad ever constructed specifically for military use. First put into use in February 1862 and abandoned a few weeks later, the railroad fed supplies to the Confederate encampment in Centreville. Approximately 5 and a half miles long, it veered off from the junction of the Orange and Alexandria and Manassas Gap railroads in Manassas, coming to an end somewhere near the intersection of route 28 and highway 29.

"The Confederates in 1861 and 1862 began building a military railroad into Centreville to mitigate the problem of wagons getting stuck in the mud," Jim Burgess, Ranger and Museum Specialist from Manassas National Battlefield Park informed me. "It terminated, I believe, where the McDonald's now is off route 28."

I headed south to the Manassas Museum not too long ago and spoke to Roxana Adams, the Curator and Deputy Director. "The railroad began here in Manassas as an offshoot of the railroad junction," she said. "We have it marked just off of West Street."

There are markers, in fact, at both the beginning and the end of the line. The beginning point sits on the side of West St. in old-town Manassas, though nothing remains of the railroad itself. Another markers sits at the end of the railroad too, at the end of Old Centreville Road near the commuter lot— but it's actually a half-mile from the correct location.

While these two markers are informative, absolutely nothing remains of the railroad at either location. A third marker on Compton Road across from the Upper Occoquan Service Authority Water Reclamation plant sits wedged into a line of gnarled trees and grass clippings where the railroad used to be. You can kind of make it out, even if it's hard to imagine a freight car running along it. 

I checked other spots -- supposedly there are remains on the Water Reclamation Plant property, though a call to the UOSA proved fruitless. Running between Old Mill and Mt. Olive roads, as well, the rail bed can be seen, but I couldn't find it.

In the Compton Ridge neighborhood, though, I met Kurt, a homeowner who happened to be gardening when I approached. He's an avid Civil War enthusiast who says he's searched the entire neighborhood for relics and has taken part in the 1997 archaeological dig (at the aforementioned McDonald's) which uncovered the remains of 6 soldiers from Massachusetts.

He showed the outline, which trails out of the woods and into a backyard at the end of Colonel Taylor lane. It's barely a ditch. Here, though, is the only place I found where the discernible outline of the rail bed can be deciphered.

We stood there for awhile and chatted, exchanging notes about the area. The thin little ditch in which I stood suddenly took on a monumental life, transporting people and supplies to and from the greatest conflict ever seen in this country.  

A small line trailing out of the woods, disappearing beneath the suburbs, is all that's really left of history.