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“The Great Train Raid of 1861” - Arthur Candenquist, Historical Consultant for the 2011 Great Train Raid Reenactment
In 1861 Southern troops needed rail cars to supplement their rolling stock. Colonel Thomas J. Jackson contrived and executed a brilliant scheme to “appropriate” the needed rail cars, locomotives, and equipment from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The cars and locomotives were moved overland on the Valley Turnpike--first to the Manassas Gap Railroad in Strasburg, and then to the Virginia Central Railroad in Staunton after the Manassas Gap Railroad was wrested from Confederate control in early 1862. Some of these rail cars and locomotives and other equipment passed through New Market heading south.
Arthur Candenquist, in the persona of Capt., Thomas R. Sharp, Assistant Quartermaster, C.S. Army, presents both narration and slides, which examines how the enterprise was executed, the personalities involved, and the obstacles that had to be overcome in order to guarantee the success of the scheme.
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