The Alexandria, Loudon & Hampshire Railroad ran 37.5 miles from Alexandria, Virginia to Clark’s Gap, just beyond Leesburg, during the American Civil War.
Before the war
The railroad was originally Incorporated as the Alexandria and Harper’s Ferry Railroad on March 20, 1847. The plan was to build a railroad that would link the rich Shenandoah Valley with the port of Alexandria, keeping traffic in Virginia that was being carried away to Baltimore by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
But by March 15, 1853, no track had been laid. The corporate name was changed to the Alexandria, Loudon & Hampshire Railroad, anticipating a connection with the coalfields of Hampshire County. Construction finally began in 1855, but Leesburg was not reached until May 17, 1860.
The War Years
The Alexandria, Loudon & Hampshire Railroad found itself on the front lines of the Civil War in its opening days. Union forces crossed the Potomac and occupied Alexandria on May 24, 1861. The other end of the railroad a Leesburg continued to be held by Confederate forces until March of 1862. During that time a number of skirmishes and small battles were fought along the line, often involving a train
Civil War Action at Vienna Marker
War came to the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad (predecessor of the OD) shortly after Virginia seceded from the Union. Before Federal forces confiscated the railroad on May 24, 1861, Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee tore up the track and bridges west of Vienna and sent two of the three locomotives south.
After the skirmish at Vienna, the Clarke and other locomotives shuttled troops and supplies to Union encampments between Alexandria Vienna. The AL&H saw little further action other than occasional harassment by Col. John Mosby’s men.
On June 17, 1861, at this bend in the railroad, a Union train carrying 271 men of the 1st Ohio Volunteers was ambushed by nearly 700 South Carolina infantry and cavalry. Amid artillery fire, the Ohioans jumped from the platform cars and took cover in the woods.
The engineer immediately sped the locomotive, minus the troops and cars, back to Alexandria. Anticipating Union reinforcements, the Confederates burned the abandoned cars and retreated. Eight Federal soldiers were killed in the indecisive clash.
Mosby’s Herndon Station Raid
“My loss was nothing.”
On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1863, Confederate Capt. John S. Mosby and 40 Partisan Rangers attacked the picket post of the 1st Vermont Cavalry guarding this station on the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad. The detachment commander Lt. Alexander G. Watson, had just been joined by Maj. William Wells and other officers to investigate charges that pickets were stealing from local citizens.
Arriving ahead of a Union relief force, Mosby and his men took the pickets by surprise with only one Vermonter wounded. The Union officers were having lunch at the home of Kitty Hanna, whose husband, Nat, ran the general store in the station. The officers were also captured after a brief struggle during which Wells fell through the attic ceiling but was not injured.
Mosby reported to Gen. J.E.B. Stuart that: Yesterday I attacked a body of the enemy’s cavalry at Herndon Station, in Fairfax County, completely routing them . . . I brought off 25 prisoners – a major (Wells), 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 21 men, all their arms, 26 horses and equipments . . . My loss was nothing . . . In this affair my officers and men behaved splendidly.
Because of Mosby’s success in Herndon and northern Virginia, Union forces soon withdrew beyond Difficult Run closer to Washington, D.C. Wells later received the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of Gettysburg. He kept in touch with Mosby after the war, and Well’s daughter later invited Mosby to her wedding.
Erected by Virginia Civil War Trails.
After the War
Service was restored to Leesburg on June 1, 1867. In 1879 the railroad’s name was again changed to the Washington and Ohio Railroad, raising the sights from the war-devastated Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River, some 250 miles distant.
The company went through several other name changes before being purchased by Southern Railway in 1894. On July 1, 1912, it became known as the Washington & Old Dominion Railway and converted to electricity, becoming an interurban. The final name change was to the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad in 1936. The electrics were replaced by diesel or gas engines during World War II, and on August 27, 1968 service was abandoned on most of the line. The tracks were taken up shortly afterwards