Orange and Alexandria RR

Strategic Target

The Lake Accotink access road here lies atop the original road bed of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, chartered in 1849 to link the port city of Alexandria with Gordonsville in central Virginia. After the war began in 1861, ...

Alexandria Academy

On 17 Dec. 1785, George Washington endowed a school here in the recently established Alexandria Academy “for the purpose of educating orphan children.” In 1812, an association of free African Americans founded its own school here in space vacated by ...

Panoramic View of Alexandria

Mathew Brady – 1864. Camp of the 44th New York Volunteer Infantry, also known as the "Ellsworth Avengers" and the "People's Ellsworth Regiment." The unit was raised in honor of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, who was killed at the Marshall ...

Alexandria in the Civil War

Alexandria in the Civil War

“Alexandria is ours,” declared Col. Orlando Wilcox of the 1st Michigan Vol. Inf. as his regiment captured the city on the morning of May 24, 1861. When Virginia's vote of secession became effective, Union forces ...

Bank of the Alexandrian Society

Built by William Stedman in 1816 of local stone, this building served as the Bank of the Alexandrian Society, which printed its own currency. The bank failed in 1817 and 1837. This building has also been used as a store, ...

Historic Alexandria

Alexandria was named for the family of John Alexander, a Virginia planter who in 1669 acquired the tract on which the town began. By 1732, the site was known as Hunting Creek Warehouse and in 1749 became Alexandria, thereafter a ...

The Orange And Alexandria Railroad Trestle

The original bridge crossing Accotink Creek was built in 1851 as part of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. During the Civil War the wooden trestle was an attractive target for Confederate soldiers. In his 28 Dec. 1862 raid on Burke's ...