After the Union secured Arlington and Alexandria General Irvin McDowell needed to secure communications and connections with General Patterson’s force at Harper’s Ferry. At this point the only two ways to move troops and supplies between Washington and Harper’s Ferry were the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Loudon and Hampton Railroad. The importance of these two transportation arteries were obvious to the Confederacy and Robert E. Lee as well. On June 12th Rebels would cross the Potomac at Leesburg at Edwards Ferry to try and break the canal. Along the Loudoun and Virginia Railroad Major General Robert E. Lee ordered track and bridges west of Vienna destroyed, including the bridge over Goose Creek, and sent two of the three locomotives south. The railroad ran 37.5 miles from Alexandria, Virginia to Leesburg. War would come to the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad (predecessor of the Washington and Old Dominion) shortly after Virginia seceded.

McDowell ordered Brigadier General Dan Tyler commander of the 1st CT to inspect the track and bridges to Leesburg. The bridge the Federals were most concerned about was the one over Difficult Run above Vienna. As Tyler and his men were returning, they were fired on just southeast of Vienna by George Mills and William Walker wounding Private George Busbee of the Connecticut Life Guards. When General McDowell received reports of the incident, he decided a show of force in the area was needed. On June 17th Brigadier General Robert Schenck was ordered to undertake a reconnaissance mission to Vienna on the Railroad.

Schenck departed on the 17th by train with the 1st OH for Vienna with 668 men. Near Falls Church (where the wagon road from Georgetown, modern day Wilson Boulevard, crossed the track and ran past Falls Church) he relieved the 69th NY with two companies to guard the junction and two more companies were sent toward Falls Church. A second stop would be made just short of Lee Highway where the railroad bridge spans Four Mile Run. Two additional companies were deployed here. Schenck then proceeded with 271 men toward Vienna on the train. On a bend in the railroad near the marker below, the train was ambushed by about 600 South Carolina infantry, cavalry, and an artillery detachment with 2 guns. The 1st SC under Colonel Maxcy Gregg were conducting a reconnaissance mission from their camp near Fairfax Court House to the Potomac River. On their return near Vienna they heard a railroad whistle. Gregg deployed his two 6-pounders on a hill overlooking a bend in the railroad supported by Company B. The rest of the regiment was to the right of the guns. The cavalry were even further to the right.

When the train rounded the bend the guns opened on it with grapeshot and shells. The Ohioans were on three open platform cars and the second and third cars took heavy fire. The Federals jumped from the platform cars and took cover in the woods. The engineer detached the engine and one passenger car from the train and immediately sped the locomotive Clarke, back to Alexandria abandoning the troops. The retreating Federals made it back to Alexandria around 10:00 PM. The Confederates burned the abandoned cars and returned to their camp. The next day Josiah Bowman drove his wagon into Federal lines with the bodies of six of the deceased Union soldiers. Eight Federal soldiers were killed and 4 wounded all from Companies G and H that were on the second and third cars. These were the first soldiers from the state of Ohio killed in the Civil War. They were buried at Camp Lincoln near an old cotton factory known as Roache’s Mill. Their gravesites have been lost to history near the Presidential Gardens Apartments. The eight men who died on the battlefield were: Private John R.T.Barnes- Company G; Private Eugène G. Burke- Company G; Private Thomas C. Fenton- Company G; Private Joseph C. Smith- Company G; Private Philip Stroad- Company G; Private Daniel Sullivan- Company G; Private David W. Mercer- Company H and Private George Morrison- Company H. A ninth man Private Henry M. Pigman from Company H was mortally wounded and died shortly afterward. Company G were known as the Portsmouth Guards and Company H the Zanesville Guards.

Schenck was criticized for not sending skirmishers ahead of the train and not heading a warning from a local Unionist. The engineer had been instructed to stop one mile before the town so that skirmishers could be deployed but for unclear reasons this never happened. The bed of the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad is now a bike path.

The marker is weathered and the text hard to read. It states- “On June 17, 1861, at this bend in the railroad, a Union train carrying 271 men of the 1st Ohio Volunteers was ambushed by nearly 700 South Carolina infantry and cavalry. Amid artillery fire, the Ohioans jumped from the platform cars and took cover in the woods. The engineer immediately sped the locomotive Clarke, minus the troops and cars, back to Alexandria. Anticipating Union reinforcements, the Confederates burned the abandoned cars and retreated. Eight Federal soldiers were killed in the indecisive clash. War came to the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad (predecessor of the W&OD) shortly after Virginia seceded from the Union. Before Federal forces confiscated the railroad on May 24, 1861, Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee tore up the track and bridges west of Vienna and sent two of the three locomotives south. After the skirmish at Vienna, the Clarke and other locomotives shuttled troops and supplies to Union encampments between Alexandria Vienna. The AL&H saw little further action other than occasional harassment by Col. John Mosby’s men.”

The banks of the side walls along the path are high.

The train would then have proceeded down the incline.

The battle occurred where the trail crosses Park Street at the crosswalk- 38.9009708, -77.2595697.

Kiosk at Centennial Park- 38.9035667, -77.2657500

Stone Monument- the plaque has been removed from the stone. It stated “On June 17, 1861, near this spot, a railroad was first used tactically in warfare when units from the 1st to 8th Regiments, South Carolina successfully engaged 1st Ohio Volunteers who were using a train of the Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad.”

Sources

The Glories of War, Small Battles and Early Heroes of 1861 by Charles P. Poland Jr.

Battle of Vienna, June 17, 1861: An Overview. All Not So Quiet Along the Potomac.

Historic “Firsts,” the Railroad and the Battle of Vienna. All Not So Quiet Along the Potomac.

War of the Rebellion: Serial 002 Pages 0124-0128 Action at Vienna. Ohio State University

Civil War Military Operations in Northern Virginia in May-June 1861 by William H. Price The Arlington Historical Society. Volume 2, No. 1, October 1961.