Romney to Delaplane Tour / bytrains
Photo by Linda Walcroft May 2007 www.civilwarfieldtrips.com |
See below for partial text of Civil War Trails Marker
Piedmont Station
By Train to Manassas
First Manassas Campaign
"Here at Piedmont Station (now Delaplane) trains were used for the first time in history to move troops to impending battle.
On July 19, 1861, the fields surrounding this stop on the Manassas Gap Railroad -- which appeared then almost exactly as they do today -- were filled with thousands of volunteer soldiers, members of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army of the Shenandoah. A single steam locomotive was on hand to move the army to Manassas Junction, then threatened with Federal attack. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's 1st Brigade, ordered here from their bivouac in the meadows just south of Paris, were loaded onto freight and cattle cars for the first transport, which took eight hours to cover the 30 miles to Manassas.
Sunday morning, July 21, Jackson's troops marched from Manassas Junction to Henry House Hill to participate in the first major battle of the Civil War..."