Winchester and Potomac Railroad

The Winchester and Potomac Railroad was an historic railroad in the Southern United States, which ran from Winchester, Virginia to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad junction at Harpers Ferry on the Potomac River [Black, p. xxiii] . The W&P Railraod is now incorporated into the modern CSX Transportation Class I railroad. It played a key role in early train raids of the B&O Railroad during the beginning months of the American Civil War.

Founding and early history

Most railroads built in Virginia before the American Civil War connected farming and industrial centers to ports such as Alexandria, Virginia and Norfolk, Virginia. Towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains needed rail transportation to connect with port cities but were hampered by the ability to cross the mountains. When the newly formed B&O Railroad was planned to cut across the northern end of the lower Shenandoah Valley, the Virginia General Assembly chartered the W&P Railroad in 1831. Routes were then surveyed by the U.S. Topographical Engineers of the U.S. Army Engineering Corps from 1831 to 1832. After the B&O Railroad was completed to Harpers Ferry in 1834 construction of the W&PRR began in 1835 and was completed by 1836, beginning its first operations on March 14 of that year. Final rail connection into the B&ORR was completed in January of 1837 when the southernmost Winchester and Potomac Railroad Bridge was completed across the Potomac River tying the lines together in a junction on the Maryland side of the river.The W&P Railroad was a 4 foot 8 inch gauge with rails of 16.5 pounds-per-yard flat bar constructed upon ties cut from white oak and locust. The line ran 32 miles with another 2.5 miles of sidings and turnouts. The railroad terminated at the corner of Water and Market Streets in Winchester. The Winchester Depot immediately became a key economic hub serving merchant traders in Winchester for commodities such as wheat, hide, fur, tobacco and hemp. The north end of the rail line also served the thriving industrial town of Virginius Island, which sat astride the Shenandoah Canal on the south side of Harpers Ferry.

This connection to the B&ORR caused much concern politically, since this potentially enabled all farming and industrial produce in the Great Appalachian Valley region of Virginia to ship out of ports in Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania rather than through Virginian ports. Therefore this railroad was not authorized for connections further south. Those southern portions of the Shenandoah Valley were served later by other railways such as the Manassas Gap Railroad which connected Mount Jackson, Virginia to the Manassas Junction on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and the Virginia Central Railroad which connected Staunton, Virginia to Richmond, Virginia.

Civil War

By the start of the Civil War in 1861, W&PRR owned six locomotives: Ancient, Pocahontas, Farmer, President, Virginia and Potomac, all of which were 4x4x0 except for Farmer which was 4x2x0. Rolling stock included four passenger cars, one mail/baggage car, forty freight cars and eight repair cars. Officers of the company included William L. Clark, President and Chief Engineer Thomas Robinson Sharp. On June 18, 1861 Chief Engineer Sharp was commissioned a Captain in the Confederate States Army and was instrumental in various railroad operations, constructions and raids for the Confederacy and the Army of Northern Virginia, especially under Stonewall Jackson.

The W&PRR was a key asset used in the May 1861 Great Train Raid of 1861 when Stonewall Jackson raided the B&ORR and removed and captured 56 locomotives and 386 railway cars. Jackson moved all this rolling stock to the roundhouses and railyards in Martinsburg, West Virginia with the intent to transport these down the W&P Railroad to Winchester for transfer onto wagons and dollies. From there the locomotives and rolling stock were moved overland to Strasburg and Staunton and then moved by rail for service in the Confederacy. [Black, p.89] Unfortunately, on June 2, 1861 the B&O Railroad bridge over the Opequon Creek two miles east of Martinsburg was destroyed by over-zealous Confederate forces who lit 50 coal cars on fire and ran them off the destroyed trestle. This inadvertently ended Jackson’s ability to use the W&PRR to evacuate the raided train cars and booty out of Martinsburg, forcing Jackson to return in June to destroy the bridge at Harpers Ferry on June 14, 1861 and then to Martinsburg on June 23 to destroy any remaining rolling stock and about 42 locomotives. This reduced Jackson’s net capture of 56 locomotives down to 14. During these May and June raids in 1861 about 100 miles of B&O Railroad were taken by Jackson’s forces and moved to storage in Winchester.

The W&P Railroad at that point, however, had very little transportation value for either Confederate or Union forces for the rest of the war, and was not used by the Confederacy anymore after early 1862 when it was seized by Union forces under Major General Banks. Most of the rolling stock and rail ties that had been captured and stored in Winchester before the invasion by Banks were evacuated and used in various other Confederate railroads. [Black, p.86] By the end of 1863 the W&P Railroad was practically and nearly completely destroyed by the actions of armies on both sides.In March and April of 1864 Union forces, observed by Colonel John S. Mosby, were surveying the W&PRR and began repairing the road and laying rails, in preparation for advancements into the Valley. This report was relayed by General J.E.B. Stuart to General Robert E. Lee saying “It is stated that preparations are making to rebuild the [W&P] railroad from Harper’s Ferry to Winchester, which would indicated a reoccupation of the latter place. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is very closely guarded along its whole extant. No ingress or egress from their lines is permitted to citizens as heretofore, and everything shows secrecy & preparation.” The W&P Railroad was not actually re-opened by the Union for service until later in 1864.

Post Bellum

Following the war, in 1866 the railroad was returned to the company and stock holders, who decided to simply lease the right –of-way to the B&O Railroad. Then, in 1867 the new Winchester and Strasburg Railroad was built which connected Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to the Manassas Gap Railroad in place at Strasburg, Virginia enabling a connection up the Shenandoah Valley to Harrisonburg, Virginia. Throughout Reconstruction northern railroad companies were able to charter new lines and construct railroads that connected the entire Shenandoah Valley north into Pennsylvania and south into Tennessee and North Carolina.

In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled in a lawsuit, overturning a previous judgment in favor of W&P Railroad Company for $30,340 for the value of the iron rails that were removed in 1862 during the American Civil War. The W&P Railroad Company claimed that its stock owners were loyal citizens during the war, and that the United States had taken possession and control of the valley up to Winchester, and then had removed its strap and T rails over to the Manassas Gap Railroad for service, as well as storage in Alexandria, Virginia and they were never returned. Furthermore, W&P Railroad had paid Manassas Gap Railroad $25,000 in 1874 for rails that had been put on to the W&P Railroad.

Modern Times

In 1902 the W&P Railroad was acquired by B&O Railroad, marking 71 years of total existence for the W&P Railroad. Later the B&O Railroad sold the railine to the Roanoke, Belmont and Occidental Railroad Company and was used in their Eastern Division until 1964. The line finally became a line under the Shenandoah Subdivision of CSX Transportation.

See also

*Winchester in the American Civil War
*List of CSX Transportation lines

Notes

References

* Black, Robert C. "The Railroads of the Confederacy". The University of North Carolina Press, orginally 1952.

External links

http://www.csa-railroads.com