Winchester and Potomac Railroad
It was completed by 1836, beginning its first operations on March 14 of that year,[3]: 191 when the locomotive "Tennessee", "the first ever seen in the valley of Virginia", made its first trip from Harpers Ferry to Winchester "in style".
The W&P was a standard gauge road with rails of 16.5 pounds per yard (8.2 kg/m) flat bar constructed upon ties cut from white oak and locust.
The north end of the rail line also served the thriving industrial town of Virginius Island, which sat astride the Shenandoah Canal on the south side of Harpers Ferry.
[6] The greatest use and value in the W&P came in the first eight months of the war, from May 1861 to January 1862, when it was utilized to ship light machinery from the Harpers Ferry arsenal down to Winchester, and from there overland to Strasburg and the Manassas Gap Railroad.
After initially trapping this rolling stock on the Virginia-controlled portion of the B&O, Jackson immediately "helped himself to four small locomotives not too heavy for the flimsy flat-bar rails of the Winchester & Potomac, and had them sent to Winchester,"[2] where they were disassembled near Fort Collier, mounted onto special dollies and wagons, and hauled by 40-horse teams "down the Valley turnpike to the [Manassas Gap] railroad at Strasburg,"[9] reassembled and placed back on the tracks "which connected with the Virginia Central and the entire railroad system of the Confederacy.
"[11] Through this event, the Chief Engineer of the W&P, Thomas R. Sharp, became heavily involved with what was later referred to as the "railroad corps" of the Confederacy, disassembling and moving other locomotives, cars, rails, ties, and machinery from the B&O to Winchester for storage and subsequent removal deeper into Confederate territory.
"[17] As Banks retreated from Winchester, the Confederates occupied the northern Shenandoah Valley, burned the W&P's principal bridges, and tore up all the track.
Reverend J. W. Jones of Charles Town, West Virginia, reported that the Northern government was using the railroad for that purpose, and this was confirmed three days later when Major General J.E.B.
[19] Also in August, Confederate lieutenants George Baylor and Milton Rousss of Company B, 12th Virginia Cavalry, led a small raid attacking the W&P between Summit Point and Cameron's Depot, capturing eight Union soldiers, $4,000 in cash and food supplies.
McClellan, meanwhile, on October 10, was making arrangements with the Baltimore & Ohio to reconstruct the W&P with heavier duty T-rails, locomotives and trains for planned future Union Army operations.
Resistance to occupation in the Valley began to grow, and the 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion was raised in the area under Major John S. Mosby, also known as the "Gray Ghost".
On June 15, after a sweeping rout of Milroy in the Second Battle of Winchester, the Confederates once again controlled the northern Shenandoah Valley as they marched to the Potomac River during the Gettysburg Campaign.
Two days later, "Captain T. B. Lee of the Corps of Engineers, C.S.A., was ordered to proceed to the lines of the Winchester & Potomac and the Baltimore & Ohio to collect any machinery, tools, rolling stock, or portions thereof which fell into Confederate hands.
He was instructed to arrange with Lee's chief quartermaster, Colonel J. L. Corley, for men and wagons to transport the material down the Valley turnpike.
In March and April 1864 Union forces, observed by Colonel John S. Mosby, were surveying the W&P and began repairing the road and laying rails, in preparation for advancements into the Valley.
Stuart to General Robert E. Lee, saying, "It is stated that preparations are making to rebuild the [W&P] railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester, which would indicate a reoccupation of the latter place.
Early south in the Shenandoah Valley, clearing the north end of Confederate forces, the Union Army set about, once again, and for the last time, repairing the W&P, reconstructing 26 miles (42 km) of roadway to serve Sheridan.
In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled in a lawsuit, overturning a previous judgment in favor of W&P Railroad Company for $30,340, for the value of the iron rails that were removed in 1862 during the Civil War.
The W&P claimed that its stock owners were loyal citizens during the war, and that the United States had taken possession and control of the valley up to Winchester, and then had removed its strap and T-rails over to the Manassas Gap Railroad for service, as well as storage in Alexandria, and they were never returned.
