Jackson’s Great Train Raid of 1861
Established, 1778, by Gen. Adam Stephen. Named for Col. Thomas Martin, nephew of Lord Fairfax. Home of Admiral Charles Sterling and Admiral Charles B. Caldwell. In Jackson’s raid, 1861, captured 8,500 locomotives and 300 miles of railway.
This marker is referring to a remarkable railroad operation of the Civil War, commonly known as Stonewall Jackson’s Great Train Raid of 1861.
In the spring of 1861, shortly after Virginia seceded from the Union, Confederate Colonel Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was ordered to secure the Shenandoah Valley and disrupt Union transportation. At that time, Martinsburg was a major hub on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one of the most important rail lines in the United States, connecting Washington and Baltimore with the Ohio River and the West.
Jackson understood that control of the railroad was vital to the Union war effort. In May and June of 1861, his troops occupied Martinsburg and captured large numbers of locomotives and railroad cars. Because Confederate tracks were of a different gauge and there was no direct rail connection south, Jackson devised a solution. Teams of horses pulled the captured locomotives and cars over ordinary roads from Martinsburg to Strasburg, Virginia, where they could be transferred to Confederate rail lines.
Over several months, Confederate forces removed or destroyed 56 locomotives and more than 300 railroad cars, severely disrupting Union transportation. Although the numbers given on some historical markers vary, historians regard the Great Train Raid as a successful act of railroad warfare during the Civil War.
For Martinsburg, the raid was only the beginning of four years of upheaval. Because of its location, the town changed hands numerous times during the war and suffered repeated occupations. The railroad eventually recovered, and Martinsburg emerged after the war as a great railroad center of the East.
Read More From Nancy
506 West John Street
This address appears on so many envelopes preserved in my parents’ papers that I felt compelled to include it in my exploration of Martinsburg. During my visit, I made a point of finding 506 West John Street and taking a photograph of the house. From the outside, I saw no obvious connection to my father, […]
Belle Boyd Home
Walking the streets of Martinsburg, I wanted to capture as much as I could of the town that my father would have known during his childhood. One of the pleasures of exploring on foot was discovering that history seems to appear around every corner. Among the landmarks that caught my attention was the home associated with one of […]
Shenandoah Valley Company Building
Walking the historic downtown of Martinsburg, I found myself searching for the buildings that would have been familiar to my father during his youth. Many storefronts have changed but some of the city’s grand commercial buildings remain much as they appeared when he walked these streets. One structure that caught my attention was the Shenandoah Valley […]
