n Sundays so I could not check out the history displays and model trains. I took the time to read a Civil War Trails marker in front of the station and talked with a history intern from George Mason who was preparing for an upcoming Sesquicentennial event at the museum. A return trip, however, is in order.
|The Fairfax Station Railroad Museum, located in the 1903 train station. A Civil War Trails marker in front of the station describes Barton's feelings on arriving at Fairfax Station in August 1862: "We were a little band of almost empty-handed workers, literally by ourselves, in the wild woods of Virginia, with 3000 suffering dying men crowded upon a few acres within our reach." The station at the time of the Civil War was a two-story building. Union soldiers wrote about surgeons performing amputations on the station's first floor.|
After touring Fairfax Station, I grabbed lunch in the City of Fairfax and then visited a few sites associated with other periods during the Civil War. (More to come in future posts!) Overall, I would recommend that visitors add Ox Hill, St. Mary's, and Fairfax Station to any itinerary involving Second Manassas. The tour gave me a real feel for the days following the battle. Ox Hill alone tells the powerful story of an engagement that resulted in the deaths of two rising stars in the Union Army. The park also teaches an important lesson about battlefield preservation. St. Mary's and the land around Fairfax Station speak to the hardships endured by ordinary Union soldiers, as well as the sacrifices of Barton and other courageous volunteers. Although more obscure compared to places like Manassas National Battlefield, these sites certainly merit a detour in their own right.
Aside from the websites referenced in the main text, the following sources were useful in compiling this post:
David H. Burton, Clara Barton: In the Service of Humanity (1995); Percy H. Epler, The Life of Clara Barton (1915); Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Clara Barton: Professional Angel (1987); Stephen W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (1983).
The books on Clara Barton provide incredibly moving descriptions of the conditions of the wounded at Fairfax Station and explain Barton's role in greater detail. I'd recommend reading these accounts before touring St. Mary's and the Fairfax Station area.
Additional Tourist Information & Sesquicentennial Events
Hyperlinks to the websites for Ox Hill Battlefield Park, St. Mary's Church, and the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum can be found in the main text above.
There are several upcoming Sesquicentennial activities related to Ox Hill and the aftermath of Second Manassas:
Ox Hill Battlefield Park will be holding an all-day commemorative event on Saturday, September 1, the 150th anniversary of the engagement. More information can be found here.
This upcoming weekend, the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum will be hosting an event to commemorate the medical treatment and evacuation of the wounded after Second Manassas. The focus on Civil War medicine and Clara Barton should make this an interesting event. See here for more details.
St. Mary of Sorrows is holding a candlelight memorial service in memory of those soldiers killed and wounded at Second Manassas and Ox Hill. Information on this unique event can be found on the church's homepage.