Excavating for “Y” at Devereux Station

In 1863 Black and white workers use pickaxes and shovels to excavate a new track for the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Devereux Station (now the town of Clifton) near Bull Run, the tributary that served as the boundary between Fairfax and Prince William counties. The men are constructing a "Y" (also called a wye), a triangular junction that would allow trains to turn around. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad was so frequently attacked by Confederate forces that in 1863 the Union Army abandoned the rail line south of Bull Run; thus, this wye could redirect trains north.

The steam-powered locomotive used in this work detail is named "General Haupt," after Herman Haupt, the general overseeing Union railroad operations in the field. Haupt watches the construction workers from the hill at far right, standing in the center between two men. The bearded man standing on the bank close to the workers is John Henry Devereux, the superintendent of military railroads in Virginia; the railroad siding here was named after him.