Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments • Facts • The Armies
The Unfinished Railroad wayside marker is along the Unfinished Railroad, reached from Stop 6 on the Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour.
From the wayside marker:
Unfinished Railroad
Attacks on Jackson’s Line
From the woods ahead came the sound of many men approaching. Out of a fog of musket smoke the enemy appeared, charging with fixed bayonets straight at this position.
You are standing behind the Unfinished Railroad, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson’s main line of resistance. One the long afternoon of August 29, wave after wave of Federal regiments assaulted this position, their dead and wounded piling up on the forward slope of the embankment. For the Confederates, the worst moment came when Union Brig. Gen. Cuvier Grover’s troops broke through the line.
Second
Battle of Manassas
Day 2
August 29, 1862
from the caption to the map:
Unfinished Railroad Loop Trail. The one mile trail follows the cuts and high banks of the historic railroad grade. An exhibit on the other side depicts Grover’s bayonet charge from the Union perspective. On troop location makers, Union and Confederate soldiers describe the bloody ordeal in their own words.
