The United States Military Railroad wayside marker is alongside the Meade Station Trail that begins at Stop Three on the the Petersburg Eastern Front Auto Tour.

The railway was built from the U.S. Army’s port and supply depot at City Point. A small section of track next to the marker shows its lightweight construction. The line eventually extended to the western side of Petersburg along Hatcher’s Run, close behind the ever-lengthening Federal siege lines.

See more about the
City Point & Army Railroad during the Siege of Petersburg

Text from the marker:

The United States Military Railroad

The thin rails of the Unted States Military Railroad brought men, sustenence, supplies, and ammunition from City Point to Union armies sprawled across 30 miles of war-torn Virginia. You are near the site of Meade Station, one of the road’s major waysides.

Started in June 1864 and dismantled in 1865, the Military Railroad carried as many as fifteen trains loaded with a total of 1,400 tons of supplies each day. As the siege lines stretched westward, engineers extended the railroad until it totalled more than 22 miles of track.

Caption to the lower drawing:

The military railroad also gave the Federals the means to move men quickly to any point of the line. here, Union troops unload at Warren Sation during the Battle of Peeble’s Farm, September 10, 1864.

‘It ran up hill and down dale, and its undulations were so marked that a train moving along it looked in the distance like a fly crawling over a corrugated washboard.”
– Lt. Col. Horace Porter, USA

Many of the stations along the railroad were named after Union generals. From Meade Station, the suplies were hauled by wagon along the Prince George Court House Road to the front, 1.5 miles away.

Location of the marker

The United States Military Railroad wayside marker is just north of the Civil War location of Meade Station. This was a stop on the railroad near where it crossed Prince George Court House Road. (37°13’48.7″N 77°20’50.1″W)