Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments • The Armies
The Unfinished Railroad is Stop 6 of the Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour. The railroad had been intended to be an extension of the Manassas Gap Railroad, which ran from the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas. The extension would continue on from Manassas to Alexandria. This would have allowed its traffic to avoid being transferred to the competing Orange & Alexandria Railroad. The Civil War ended those plans with the roadbed embankment graded but no rails laid. Jackson’s Confederates in the 1862 battle took advantage of the roadbed as a field fortification. This was the target of repeated savage but unsuccessful Union assaults. After the war the two railroads merged, and the extension of the rail line was never finished.
Along the Unfinished Railroad loop trail
Information marker
Wayside markers
Grover’s Attack wayside marker
Unfinished Railroad wayside marker
Unfinished Railroad – Attacks on Jackson wayside marker
Trailside markers
1st Massachusetts Infantry trailside marker
2nd New Hampshire Infantry trailside marker
2nd (Leasure’s) Brigade trailside marker
45th Georgia Infantry trailside marker
49th Georgia Infantry trailside marker
63rd Pennsylvania Infantry trailside marker
Archer’s Brigade trailside marker
Location of Stop Six
Stop Six on the Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour is on the east side of Featherbed Lane about 0.9 mile north of US 29 (Lee Highway) and about 1.4 miles southwest of Stop Five.
Directions to Stop Seven on the Driving Tour
From the parking area at Stop Six head south on Featherbed Lane about 1/3 mile. The parking area for Stop Seven is on the west side.