During the Civil War, the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria railroads intersected at Manassas Junction, making it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy as a supply depot and center for military transportation, and two of the war’s great battles were fought nearby. Diaries, letters, and newspaper articles recorded the war’s effects on civilians as well as the thousand of soldiers who passed through the junction. On July 16, 1861, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard received a coded message there from Confederate spy Mrs. Rose O’Neal Greenhow in Washington warning that she had copies of orders for Union Gen. Irving McDowell to march 35,000 troops to capture Manassas and then move on to Richmond. Beauregard wired Confederate President Jefferson Davis to request reinforcements, and Davis confirmed McDowell’s advance before ordering Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army from the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas Junction. Early on July 18, just as Union Gen. Robert Patterson telegraphed Washington that he had succeeded in keeping Johnston’s force at Winchester, Johnston slipped his command out of town. He did not tell his men where they were going, and their forced march ended at 2 a.m. on July 19 at Paris, Virginia. As the soldiers rested, Johnston rode ahead to Piedmont Station, present-day Delaplane, to arrange trains to transport them. After learning of the fight at Blackburn’s Ford earlier that day, he sent word to Beauregard that he was on his way. About 6 a.m., Johnston’s first brigade under Gen. Thomas J. Jackson marched into view and soon boarded railroad cars for the eight-hour ride. The brigade arrived in time to help defend the junction at the First Battle of Manassas, and within 28 hours the men had covered 60 miles and became the first soldiers ever to move from one theatre of war to another by train.
