AFRICAN AMERICAN WOOD CHOPPERS ON THE ORANGE AND ALEXANDRIA RAILROAD

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOOD CHOPPERS ON THE ORANGE AND ALEXANDRIA RAILROAD

Civil War 1861-1865

Behind Union lines, enslaved person who escaped or was brought within Union lines during the American Civil War were used on confiscated farms to raise food for the army and wood chopping to help in the construction of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Some of the once enslaved received wages for the first time. These people were referred to as contrabands. They were in danger of being captured or killed during Confederate attacks. Burke Station was heavily wooded, and the wood cut by the contrabands was uses as railroad ties and repairing bridges burned by the Confederates. On November 25, 1863 at the Devereux Siding, Confederate raiders attacked and wood choppers were captured.

Notes:
African American Wood choppers and Orange and Alexandria Railroad - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v_cN6hxljooroo
African American Wood Choppers’ Hut on Orange and Alexandria Railroad Photo https://railroads.unl.edu/documents/view_document.php?id=rail.iw.017
Devereux Siding: A Civil War Wood Station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad By Debbie Robison July 8, 2012. www.novahistory.org/DevereuxSiding
“Contrabands of War” African American Fugitives to Union Lines http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/educate/waud.html

Historical Marker
Text: Burke's Station Inscription.
During the Civil War, African American laborers chopped wood and conveyed it to Burke’s Station, a major Federal timber transportation station located here on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. To sup- ply the Union army and engineers with timber for railroad ties, bridge trusses, stockades, and firewood, wood choppers cut down thousands of acres of woodland along the railroad in Fairfax County. The wood was then transported by rail to Alexandria.
In 1863, the U.S. Military Construction Corps built an additional siding here to facilitate the loading of wood onto railroad cars. Wood choppers moved up to 1,000 cords of lumber a month in the Burke area alone. Army teamsters hauled the wood here in mule-drawn wagons. There were as many as 100 wagons in the wagon master’s brigade at Burke’s Station. Many of the wood choppers and teamsters were escaped slave called “contrabands” who had fled to Alexandria. Because they risked capture and re-enslavement by working here outside Union lines, Federal cavalry and infantry camped nearby to protect both the contrabands and the wood stockpiles.
On October 28, 1863, Confederate guerillas captured about 25 mules, a wagon master, and several contrabands at work near here. When the Confederates ordered the wagon master to lead them to the station guard, one of the contrabands escaped to warn the garrison. They fired a volley when the Confederates approached and drove them off. The wagon master, contrabands, and mules were all rescued.

Historical Marker
Text: Devereux Siding
Orange and Alexandria Railroad
Inscription. Devereux Station, constructed in 1863 on the Orange and Alexandria (O&A) Railroad, was located down the tracks to your left. After the Confederate army withdrew from northern Virginia toward Richmond in March 1862, the U.S. Military Railroad (USMRR) assumed control of all railways in Federal territory. The siding here, named for USMRR superintendent John Henry Devereux, sup- plied wood to fuel O&A locomotives.
The O&A was the Union army’s lifeline, efficiently moving provisions, equipment, and men from Alexandria deep into central Virginia. Confederate partisan units, such as the Chinquapin Rangers and Mosby’s Rangers, frequently attacked the line, the workers, and the Federal troops. With the support of pro-Confederate local residents, the partisan units were successful in disrupting Union railroad operations. In 1863, Gen. George G. Meade issued a proclamation on July 30 informing residents within ten miles of the railroad that they would be held responsible “for any injury done to the road, trains, depots or stations by citizens, guerrillas, or persons in disguise.” Meade also announced that if attacks did not cease, the entire population “of the district or the country along the railroad [would] be put across the lines, and their property taken for government use.” The threat was not carried out, although individuals were detained periodically.
(Sidebar): Capt. James C. Kincheloe and his brother Sgt. William S. Kincheloe served with the Chinquapin Rangers. On November 25, 1863, this unit conducted a raid near Devereux Station. In retaliation, Union soldiers rounded up local residents considered suspicious, including the brothers’ father, John Kincheloe IV. The Kincheloe plantation was located approximately a mile south of here.

Source:
“Many of the wood choppers who worked along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad were former slaves known as "contrabands" who had escaped to Alexandria. They risked capture by working out- side protected Union lines. On November 25, 1863, wood choppers were at work about one-quarter mile southeast of Devereux Siding when they were attacked by Kincheloe's Rangers. Twenty-three teamsters and wood choppers and 50 mules were captured” http://www.novahistory.org

Transportation – Historical Marker

Location: Burke’s Station and Devereux Siding in Clifton
District: Springfield